Jingles the Horse is a character featured in the King Arthur Carrousel at Disneyland.
Background[]
Jingles is a non-sentient carousel horse found in the King Arthur Carousel at Disneyland. Like any typical horse, she is shown to have a standard white design all over her body, albeit with various colorful textures all over her body to resemble all the other horses. She also functions in going up and down when the carousel rotates in a standard way that any horse does in the carousel.
Development History[]
Jingles and the rest of the horses debuted in 1955 when Disneyland opened. Most of the horses were carved in the Dentzel factory in the late 19th and early 20th century. To add the outermost course, several carved wooden horses were acquired from a Stein and Goldstein carousel, others from Coney Island's Looff carousel, and more carved horses from various other carousels from around North America. Many arrived with crude repairs, such as newspaper-stuffed papier-mâché legs. Standers on the original three rows were converted to jumpers by removing the legs and carving new ones. Custom-built crankshafts were installed overhead to operate each horse as a jumper in motion. Jingles became an original horse ever since Walt Disney brought the carousel in Canada and then brought to Disneyland, making Jingles an original horse.
Because of the overwhelming popularity of the carousel's single white horse, since 1975, all horses were painted white, resulting in Jingles being painted with the same color as the other carousel horses.
Jingles was named for its very ornate carvings which include beautiful straps of jingle bells hanging from her saddle and cantle. For Disneyland's 50th anniversary celebration, she was repainted gold from nose to tail, trimmed in 18k gold leaf and set apart as a photo opportunity near the Dumbo the Flying Elephant's queue. When she was reinstalled as lead horse after the Year of a Million Dreams campaign, major portions of her were painted over, except where the gold bells and trim are showing through, with exceptionally striking translucent treatment of the rosettes on her head.
Appearances[]
King Arthur Carrousel[]
Jingles is one of the horses guests can ride on in King Arthur Carousel. Like any typical carousel horse, Jingles would go up and down when the attraction was in motion before the carousel stops while music plays in the background.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- There are several decoration details painted on Jingles' saddle blanket for the 50th anniversary of Disneyland most of them containing references to Mary Poppins and Julie Andrews, which include:
- The talking parrot-handled umbrella.
- Several easter eggs are shown in four quarters as a crest upon Jingles' kneepad all shown through in gold with a dark blue outline:
- The monogram "JA", in reference to Julie Andrews' initials.
- A robin perched upon high button shoes.
- The silhouette of Mary Poppins in flight.
- A number 50 representing the 50 Magical Years anniversary of the carousel.
- Additionally, two Hidden Mickeys can be found on Jingles: one which is located on her breastband and another one which is located on a blanket with an illustration of the umbrella from Mary Poppins.
- Jingles was Walt Disney's favorite horse.
- Prior to the attraction's automation, ride operators used Jingles to count how many times the carousel went around.