Opinion: Spirit is the best horse on campus

If you have a student organization or a cause, meet your billboard, the Spirit horse.

Of all the horses on display on campus, either large or small in bronze or identical in size made from fiberglass, the Spirit horse I call Spirit is the best of the bunch.

For those who remember the Emerald City in the Land of Oz, in the 1939 film version of the “Wizard of Oz,” the cabbie’s carriage horse turns from white to purple to red to gold while rolling down the sidewalk.

We enjoy a less animated version of Oz’s “horse of a different color” here on campus on Scholar Loop between the Alumni House and the Etherredge Center.

At semester’s start, Spirit’s fresh white paint gave it a sanitized look in a pandemic time with distinctive blue hooves and the school’s new logo. Our pacers should never again be confused with Trojan nags grazing about at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

This LatinX message has now transformed our pacer, while retaining hoof polish color and giving the logo an updo and promoting the heritage of Latin American students. Friday October 9 from 7 to 9 p.m. will be the big LatinX Celebration, La Pachanga, with food and festivities on the front lawn of the Student Activities Center.

Time to find a new job for Spirit: a notice was posted in Friday’s Student News email, “Paint our spirit horse to advertise your event or show spirit for your student organization.”

Of the half a dozen horse sculptures found around campus, Spirit has to be my favorite, offering ever changing looks, with participation by many diverse groups, giving a lifeless piece of fiberglass a purpose to display cleverly and artistically what students have on their minds or what’s coming up.  If you are ready to paint a new hide on Spirit the horse, contact the Student Life office to reserve your week.