Good ol’Bill. Forget all the other mayhem in the LOTR, Arwen’s farewell to Aragorn and all that: the saddest scene of all is when Sam has to shoo Bill away at the Gates of Moira. And, if we’re talking cool, how cool is it that a little Shire pony can escape the wolves and wargs, climb down a mountain, and find his own way back to the Shire? Obviously, Bill shared the characteristics of humble strength and quiet, unflashy ability with his hobbit masters. Very cool.
Aha!
[geek mode=Tolkien]
Arod: Horse of Rohan lent to Legolas (with Gimli as passenger)
Asfaloth: Elf-horse of Glorfindel (probably Arwen in the movie as PJ’s feminist principles led him to cut this wa-a-a-ay cool First-Ager out of the plot and give Elrond’s daughter a bigger part) lent to Frodo during the Flight to the Ford
Hasufel: Horse of Rohan lent to Aragorn, formerly the property of a Rider of Rohan named Garulf who was one of the few casualties when Eomer’s knights trashed the Uruk-Hai (the ones who had Merry and Pippin).
Snowmane: Personal mount of King Theoden. In the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, Snowmane rears in terror before the winged mount of the Lord of the Nazgul, throws Theoden, and being pierced by a dart falls on the King and crushes him to death. Hence he earns the epitaph: “Faithful servant yet master’s bane; Lightfoot’s foal, swift Snowmane”
[/geek]
Pleased to oblige!
PS - for reasons not clearly explained by Peter Jackson, Hasufel’s name was changed to Brego in the movie.
<Horse/Tolkien geek hat on>
Brego, by the way, was the second king of Rohan.
Hasufel means “greyskin” in Rohirric and as you can imagine he was a grey in the book. Possibly this was changed in the movie so people wouldn’t confuse him with Shadowfax.
In the books Aragorn also has his own horse, named Roheryn, that <trying to to spoil anything here> he is reunited with a bit later in the story.
<H/T/gh off>
I voted for Bill. Shadowfax’s lead is down to 18.5%.
Where’s Seabiscuit? I found it inspiring when Frodo rode Seabiscuit at the end. Go Seabiscuit!
I thought Bill was from Rivendale, and that he was sort of protected by the fact that he used to live with the elves. I don’t think that Bill was from the shire
/could be wrong.
Actually, Bill was from Bree. When they were in Rivendell he “learned” from the elf horses (to use Tolkien’s term). After the fellowship entered Moria, he made his way back to Rivendell, where Sam picked him up on the way back to the Shire.
That was it. I knew he wasn’t from the Shire, in as much as Bree wasn’t part of the Shire, eh? I can’t run with the big dogs on Tolkien lore. Though I knew he got smarter being in Rivendell.
Thanks Malacandra… I need to reread the books and pay attention to the little details.
My vote goes for Hasufel (Brego).
Are we sure Hasufel and Brego are the same horse?
I distinctly remember Eomer calling out “Hasufel! Arod!” when he gives the horses to Aragorn & co.
Did Aragorn rename Hasufel or is it a different horse?
Im not 100% on that, but according to Hello Again Pete Jackson changed the horses name to Brego for some unknown reasons.
I’ll agree that it doesnt sound like Eomer says Brego, but the horse he gives Aragorn is featured on the LOTR screensavers as Brego.
Maybe Eomer does call the horse Hasufel and Aragorn renames it as Brego?
I voted for Bill. I’d go back and vote again, but it won’t let me.
I voted Bill but wanted to vote for the nazgul.
Don’t ask what your pony can do for you…
Thanks are never necessary for affording a geek the opportunity to be geeky 
Further on Bill, Gandalf also pronounced a few kind words over him before sending him back. And since a casual word from Gandalf over Barliman’s beer resulted in it being startlingly good (as Barley remarked to Gandalf and the hobbits on their way home) we can be sure that this blessing was not without its effect, though not conspicuously magical.
Upon further reflection I hypothesize that the name change was because of the meaning of Hasufel’s name (greyskin). It would have looked damn odd to slap that name on a chestnut*. I do think Jackson tried to avoid jarring discrepancies whenever possible, and I think there is a certain cadre of female fans who are more or less obsessed with the horsie aspects of the books (::cough cough:: guilty as charged.) Perseonally I don’t think it would have been confusing to have Hasufel as a dark grey, and Shadowfax a pale white/grey. Perhaps there simply wasn’t an appropriate grey horse available.
If you look at the following link, you’ll see Brego described as “Aragorn’s horsein The Two Towers.” I’m still holding out for an appearance of Roheryn in ROTK.
http://www.lordoftherings.net/guide/horses_brego.html
*brown horse with a brown mane & tail
Hello Again, wouldn’t it have been nice if they could have gotten that pure white horse that made all the horse news a year or so ago? I’m not very versed in horse-stuff, but apparently “white” isn’t an official horse color. However, a horse was born non-albino, but could be classified as nothing other than “white”. They had a similiar controversy with it’s mother, and the previous generation, but couldn’t deny it after the third generation.
Or I could be completely wrong…