Meet The Real Life Horse That The Fictional Spirit Was Inspired By

The movie Spirit is very popular among cowgirls, mostly due to the lovable animated buckskin that the movie is named after. What some fans of the film may not know, is that the animated Spirit was actually inspired by a real life horse!

A Kiger Mustang named Spirit was the inspiration behind the iconic movie, "Spirit was used as an inspiration and model for the artists and animators during the making of the 2002 DreamWorks animated film Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron." - Return to Freedom

Spirit was relocated to Return to Freedom Wild Horse Sanctuary after movie production was finished. He currently is the featured ambassador for the Kiger Mustangs, and spends his days roaming pastures.

Information about the Kiger Mustang breed:

"Kigers range from 13.3 to 15.2 hands. The majority are duns, but Kigers can also be other colors, including bay, grullo, red dun, roan, or black. An unusual color, termed “claybank” by the Kiger community, combines dun with cream to create the palest line-backed representatives of the breed." - Return to Freedom

If you can't get enough of horse flicks, wait until you read about the last surviving horse from the 1994 production of Black Beauty!