08/08/2026
Nice post!!
I have walked past these little metal rings set into Portland curbs more times than I can count and never once wondered what they were for. Which is exactly how Portland gets you: some of the city’s strangest stories are not behind a secret door or at the end of a trail. Sometimes they are bolted into the sidewalk.
Those iron rings are horse parking. Actual horse parking. Back when horses were part of everyday city life, people tied them there while they went into shops or ran errands. The stranger part is that Portland still protects the surviving rings. PBOT treats them as historic, and city guidance says they should be reinstalled when curb work removes them. We are maintaining parking infrastructure for commuters who have not used it in roughly a century. God, I love it here.
Then, in 2005, artist Scott Wayne Indiana looked at one of those forgotten rings and tied a tiny plastic horse to it. He told me the idea was partly about bringing the history back to life, but mostly about making people notice what was already around them — the little things we walk past because we are busy, distracted or staring at our phones.
Portlanders saw the tiny horse and did what Portlanders do: they joined in. People began tethering toy horses to curb rings around the city. Tourists now message Scott asking where to find them. Twenty-one years later, strangers are still tying tiny horses to Portland curbs just because it makes the city a little more fun.
Scott gave me a few places where horses have shown up: the NW corner of Powell’s, in front of the Bagdad Theater, NW 23rd, SE 28th south of Burnside, and Woodstock near True Value and Delta Cafe. They move and disappear, so there are no guarantees — which honestly makes it better.
Now I know what those rings are, and I will never walk past one the same way again. Maybe that was always the point: pay attention long enough and an ordinary curb can turn into history, art and a scavenger hunt all at once.
Find one? Send me a photo.
Photo: Scott Wayne Indiana, used with permission.
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