History Main / TheAllegedSteed

* In "Literature/TheLegendOfSleepyHollow" segment of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad'', Ichabod Crane borrows a skin-and-bones, broken down plow horse to ride to Von Tassel's Halloween ball, traveling at a plodding pace. When faced with the Headless Horseman on the way home however, he panics and [[RunOrDie takes off like a champion racehorse,]] outrunning the Horseman's [[HellishHorse black steed.]]

* In one episode of ''WesternAnimation/GoofTroop'', Pete wins a horse like this in a card game. He manages to turn it to his advantage by included shares of the horse's winnings with the used cars he sells, not worried about paying many times its winnings because it would never win anything. Unfortunately said horse is one of said stealth [[CoolHorse cool horses]] once its broken shoe is fixed, and Pete ends up with a SpringtimeForHitler on his hands.

* Seabiscuit, a famous thoroughbred champion during TheGreatDepression, did not perform to his full potential and was sometimes the butt of stable jokes for the first three years of his life. Then, with special training, he blossomed into a CoolHorse.
* Phar Lap, one of the greatest racehorses of the Great Depression in Australia, was roundly criticized during the early years of his life as a no good horse and waste of money before similarly blossoming into a CoolHorse. He went on to dominate Australian horse racing, winning one Melbourne Cup, two Cox Plates and nineteen other weight for age races.

If the animal's appearance [[WhatAPieceOfJunk turns out to be deceptive and it's unusually strong or fast]], then it may be a stealth CoolHorse.

* In the Creator/Sky1 adaptation of ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', Moist begins his long career as a con artist by selling off his family's worthless old nag -- after cleaning it up so that it actually looks capable of being ridden.

** ''Discworld/MonstrousRegiment'' has Lieutenant Blouse's horse Thalecephalus, a skinny, bad-tempered brown ''mare'' named after a legendary stallion. (Blouse is ridiculously shortsighted.)
** ''Discworld/GoingPostal'' has Moist von Lipwig's talent to make Alleged Steeds look much better than they actually are, "for about ten minutes, or until it rains."

[[quoteright:295:[[Disney/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_alleged_steed_0.jpg]]]]

-->--''WesternAnimation/{{Shrek}}''

!!Examples

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* It is believed that in Chaturanga, the original form of TabletopGame/{{Chess}}, each King could move like the Horse (=Knight) exactly once.

* A ''MickeyMouse'' comic had him tricked into buying a horse intended for the glue factory named Tanglefoot, who is useless as Mickey tries to teach him how to race. [[spoiler:Eventually, Mickey discovers that if Tanglefoot believes he's being chased by bees, he will run like the dickens.]]

* In ''Literature/TheLegendOfSleepyHollow'' segment of ''Disney/TheAdventuresOfIchabodAndMrToad'', Ichabod Crane borrows a skin-and-bones, broken down plow horse to ride to Von Tassel's Halloween ball, traveling at a plodding pace. When faced with the Headless Horseman on the way home however, he panics and [[RunOrDie takes off like a champion racehorse,]] outrunning the Horseman's [[HellishHorse black steed.]]

-->'''Niles:''' Which horse did you wager on?
-->'''Martin:''' Joe's Dream, number eight.
-->'''Niles:''' Goodness, he seems to be taking a serene, almost Buddhist approach to the race.

[[folder:Myths, Fairy Tales & Religion]]

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' adventure T1 ''Village of Hommlet.'' If the {{PC}}s aren't careful when buying from the traders they can end up with a couple of "swaybacked, potbellied, spavined old plugs" pretending to be draft horses. The horses are 50% likely to stop every turn to rest, and if pushed by hard riding or carrying a heavy load they have a 50% chance of dying '''every 10 minutes'''.
* In ''TabletopGame/{{Shogi}}'', when the Horse piece promotes, it moves like a Gold General (i.e. one square at a time in any direction except diagonally backward).
** In the original ''Chaturanga'', each King had exactly one knight move available in a game--after that the horse was apparently exhausted.

[[folder:Theater]]

--> '''Biondello:''' ... his horse hipped with an old mothy saddle and stirrups of no kindred, besides possessed with the glanders and like to mose in the chine, troubled with the lampass, infected with the fashions, full of wingdalls, sped with spavins, rayed with yellows, past cure of the fives, stark spoiled with the staggers, begnawn with the bots, swayed in the back and shoulder-shotten, near-legged before and with a half-checked bit and a headstall of sheeps leather, which, being restrained to keep him from stumbling, hath been often burst, and now repaired with knots ...

[[folder:Webcomics]]
* In ''Webcomic/TalesOfTheQuestor,'' Quentyn is very excited by the prospect of riding a unicorn...[[http://www.rhjunior.com/tales-of-the-questor-0591/ until he sees it.]]
* Played with in ''Webcomic/PennyArcade'': Gabe plays Bella Sara and accidentally creates [[http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/5/26/ The Unhorse]], which is this trope [[ExaggeratedTrope and then some]].
* ''Webcomic/{{Gaia}}'': Viviana's horse [[http://www.sandraandwoo.com/gaia/2014/11/25/breaking-all-barriers-023/ Casper]]. Vivi, who is not a bold or skilled rider, values him for his gentleness.

[[folder:Web Original]]
* ''WebAnimation/TheRealLegend of Zelda'': The web animation series casts Epona as a small, overweight donkey, much to Link's disappointment.
* Coriander, carthorse for ''WebVideo/AcquisitionsIncorporated: The C Team'', is described in terms like "horse-style pull-creature." Doesn't stop her becoming a beloved TeamPet. The implication that she's not a real horse becomes darkly ironic [[spoiler:after she's killed and comes back as a part-{{Planimal}}, part-MechanicalHorse.]]

* The Disney animated short ''Disney/TheSmallOne'' is about a boy and his beloved donkey whom he can no longer afford to keep. The donkey is too weak to work, and the only person interested in buying him is a tanner who plans to make him into leather. [[spoiler:In the end, the boy gives the donkey to the biblical Mary and Joseph so the pregnant Mary can ride him to Jerusalem.]]

[[folder:Anime & Manga]]

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Tyrone's tiny and very slow donkey Molasses in ''WesternAnimation/TheBackyardigans'' episode "Horsing Around". When he wins the race at the end of the episode, it's only because the other jockeys were {{LastSecondShowoff}s.

[[folder:Web Animation]]
* ''WebAnimation/TheRealLegend of Zelda'': The web animation series casts Epona as a small, overweight donkey, much to Link's disappointment.
[[/folder]]

May overlap with MoodyMount. See also HorsingAround. Compare with TheAllegedCar, TheAllegedComputer, and TheAllegedHouse for other items of dubious quality.

May overlap with MoodyMount. See also HorsingAround. Compare with TheAllegedCar, TheAllegedComputr, and TheAllegedHouse for other items of dubious quality.

May overlap with MoodyMount. See also HorsingAround.

* In the Sky1 adaptation of ''Discworld/GoingPostal'', Moist begins his long career as a con artist by selling off his family's worthless old nag -- after cleaning it up so that it actually looks capable of being ridden.

PlayedForDrama at ''Literature/MartinFierro'': When Martin Fierro was recruited to fight at the Frontier, he came in a CoolHorse so cool that the Commander stole it from him. Fierro and the other recruits are forced to use very old and slow horses, and they are fighting {{BadassNative}}s with cool horses.

* The title horse in the [[NewberyMedal Newbery]]-winning novel ''Literature/KingOfTheWind'', Sham, is treated as an Alleged Steed for much of the book. After he's sent from the Caliph's stables (where he's prized as one of the finest horses) to the King of England as a gift, the English stablemaster considers him a long-necked, undersized, weedy runt and an insult to the stables, and sends him to the horse auction. Even his final owner considers him an Alleged Steed until the colt that he sired (on a mare he was never supposed to be allowed near) outraces all of the man's other, carefully-bred, racehorses, and realizes what he has in Sham. The epilogue explains that Sham is the horse known as the Godolphin Arabian, one of [[http://tiny.cc/nuwqv the three foundation sires]] of modern thoroughbred horses.

* ''Webcomic/Gaia'': Viviana's horse [[http://www.sandraandwoo.com/gaia/2014/11/25/breaking-all-barriers-023/ Casper]]. Vivi, who is not a bold or skilled rider, values him for his gentleness.

There is the CoolHorse ... and then there's '''this''', the four-legged equivalent of TheAllegedCar, a broken-down nag destined for the knacker's yard or the glue factory -- or it would be, if it hadn't somehow wound up in the hero's possession.

* Chong's horse in ''ShanghaiNoon'' devolves into this once it starts drinking.

* In ''[[Literature/HeraldsOfValdemar Magic's Promise]]'' by MercedesLackey, there is a vile-tempered horse that's alleged to be a Shina'in stallion. All he's got is the colour.