We’ve noticed a marked increase lately in the neighborhood horse population:

A northeast Portland micro herd.

Could be nostalgia, whimsy, a salute to the animals that first made these neighborhoods possible, a response to our growing coyote population. Speculate as you will, but there is definitely something going on.

This happy trend reminded us about a deeper look we made a few years back into those iron rings cast into our curbs, called “horse tethering rings,” which for a time were mandated by city ordinance as a way of making Portland streets safer. Widely used well into the 1920s before cars took over, tethering rings have traveled the full arc from vital to useless, from problematic to quaint, and now to cool.

Since it appears more and more horses are waiting patiently at our curbs, we thought it would be good to remind ourselves about the tethering rings, and to celebrate a uniquely Portland sensibility.

Check out the story of Portland’s horse tethering rings.