Model Horse

Left side view, this model horse is a component of the famous horse races deck game, one of the many deckside 'sports' organised by the Adelaide Steamship Company for their passengers.

The wooden model, of a galloping race-horse with jockey, is on wheels. The horse's front legs terminate on a single rotating wheel with a metal hook protruding forward. Rear legs terminate on a wooden strut, wooden wheels on each end. The horse is painted black, and the jockey is wearing light grey boots, white breeches, red shirt and cap, orange saddlecloth, with a number ‘3’ made from white elastoplast on each rear flank. This model is part of a set of ‘racing horses’ used as deck games aboard Adelaide Steamship Company cruise vessels on the 'gulf trips' around South Australian gulf waters between the 1930s-‘50s. A line from a separate winder was fed through the metal hook and winched along in ‘races’.