Keep That Grin, and Strengthen Those Girth Rings!
Think back to the searing summers of the 1960s, when children played on the streets and bikes ruled the block. Neighbors were neighbors, and history brooded on every street corner. And oddities like metal rings — iron rings, brass rings — driven into the sidewalks. To some, they were a throwback to a different time: horse-drawn carriages parading through the streets of a slower, less complex city.
A Utility from the Past
It’s true, the horse rings really are what they appear to be, and they did, in fact, serve a very practical purpose, back in the 1800s. Those were the days when horses were the main form of transport and the dusty streets echoed constantly with hooves. Horsemen had tied their horses to these rings when they went about their business, in the early days. Even news stories in The Register-Guard from 1978 say some of those rings could be from the early 1900s. It’s impossible to be precisely sure how old they are, but the old roads imply a time when the city was laid out around the horse, not the car.
For years construction workers had removed the rings while fixing sidewalks. That started to change in 1978 when one Portand resident found them missing. City Commissioner Connie McCready retaliated by allowing homeowners to replace a ring for $5. This simple motion instilled in me a much greater reverence for these humble little pieces.
Value in culture and Urban Identity
But horse rings are more than simply a utilitarian object; they symbolize a culture where everyone had to share public space, and a time when life moved at a slower pace. They represent a time when a journey from one place to another necessitated being among people, not apart from them. Preserving them connects us to Portland’s urban history and enriches our collective sense of place.
Art and Society: The Horse Project
These days, Portlanders have been transforming horse rings into interactive public art for a number of years. Now, residents tie model horses to them, leading to whimsical snapshots that attract the eye and spark conversation. The whole thing, as the movement is known, started in 2005 in the Woodstock neighborhood. It has become a tradition that annually turns discarded bits of the neighborhood lining the sidewalk into symbols of creativity and neighborhood pride.
It’s almost as if talk of horse rings is the horse lover’s equivalent of stories about the “good old days.” These are not just pieces of steel in concrete — these are storytellers in steel. They are echoes of when life was less hurried, and kindness was more common.
Picture a Portland street at the end of the day, the sun sinking toward the horizon and the shadows slanting across the sidewalk. You notice a small iron ring in the cement. Stop for a moment. You might even catch the clopping of hooves, or the faraway whispers of a century gone by. These rings, intended to tether horses, have become windows to the past — inviting you to imagine, to stop and think, or to engage.
Horse rings are just the kind of reminder that history isn’t always packed away in a museum somewhere. But sometimes it’s literally under your feet. In cherishing these petty particulars, we save more than objects and homes — we save narratives, personality and the shared fabric of the city we inhabit with our bodies.
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