Roy Rogers and Trigger. Photo courtsey of royrogers.com.

A horse that has been dead for nearly 45 years sold for more than $250,000 this week in an auction of items and memorabilia connected to a singing cowboy and member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Trigger, the trusty steed that Roy Rogers rode during his storied, silver-screen career, died in 1965 at age 33, and Roy subsequently had the horse stuffed and mounted. Trigger was kept on display for years at the Roy Rogers & Dale Evans Museum in Southern California and later in Branson, Mo. But the museum is being dismantled, and Roy Rogers Jr. put much of the remains up for sale in New York. Trigger brought in $266,500, the Associated Press reported. The winning bid came from RFD-TV, a rural-themed cable network.

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Colt Ford photo by Sean Cokes.

One of the longest-running debates in country music pits traditionalists against pop-leaning sounds, and it’s tough to find a better illustration of how wide the genre’s gotten than the calendar. Specifically April 20. On that date, country’s releases will include competing albums by old-school singer David Ball and rap-influenced Colt Ford.

David, who played with the late Walter Hyatt in Uncle Walt’s Band, has had a couple of peak periods as a solo artist. He threw George Jones-like, back-of-the-throat vocals onto 1994’s “Thinkin’ Problem,” an ultra-catchy song that bordered on novelty. He signed with an independent label around the turn of the century and his military ghost tale, “Riding With Private Malone,” became a Top 10 hit in the aftermath of 9/11.

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