Of Kuching (Cats) and Horses

Almost all major towns and cities have some sort of a landmark, either in the form of a building or a huge work of art. On my recent visit to Kuching, East Malaysia, I noticed lots of humongous cat statues all over town, and why not, since Kuching means cat in the Malaysian language. Not sure what's the story behind the name, but apparently, it has to do with cats.

Here is one set near the Holiday Inn hotel and there are many others all over Kuching.

CNN recently had a story about a horse statue. In Ebbsfleet Valley in England, a sculpture of a giant 50-meter white horse taller than the Statue of Liberty is set to tower over the countryside as part of an unusual scheme to help revive the fortunes of a depressed region of England.


The artist who designed it is Mark Wallinger. This 50-meter equine artwork is the winner of a competition to design a landmark to dominate the skyline of the Ebbsfleet Valley, set to be a new stop on the Eurostar London-to-Paris rail link. This £2 million ($3 million) horse will be one of the largest artworks in the UK.

There are not many or maybe hardly any equestrian horse statue here in Malaysia but if you have seen them overseas in parks and places like that, did you notice whether the horse had all four legs on the ground or one or two hooves in the air? It is often believed that the rider's fate can be determined by the number of hooves the horse has raised.

Theory has it that if one hoof is raised, the rider was wounded in battle; two raised hooves, death in battle; all four hooves on the ground, the rider survived all battles unharmed.

Revelation time.. According to Snopes.com, this claim is false and that the position and pose of the statue does not signify anything. Now that we have got that out of the way, time for some laughs..

Source: Snopes.com