Many presidents have made changes to the White House; indoor plumbing, the telephone, even a one-lane bowling alley. Calvin Coolidge was an avid horseman; he had an electric horse installed.

Coolidge was no stranger to equines. An outdoorsman and horse lover, he fell from a horse and broke his arm as a child. Undeterred, he continued to ride, especially for exercise. However, increasing political duties (mayor, senator, governor of Massachusetts, and vice president before being president) did not leave much leisure time for riding. Coolidge put on a few pounds, as the Secret Service forbade him to ride.

Enter the electric horse, the brainchild of John Harvey Kellogg (the man best known for inventing corn flakes). Kellogg claimed that one of his exercise apparatuses, the “riding horse,” perfectly imitated the single-foot and English trot gaits of a real horse, and so it did. The horse’s two gaits allowed President Coolidge to get his best-loved exercise indoors when not dealing with matters of state. He rode it regularly, three times a day.

Alas, word about the horse got out when an electrician was summoned to repair it after it went berserk and bucked hIm off. Afterward, he was mercilessly mocked for his "hobbyhorse," as people called it.

Today, the president’s steed stands on display in the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Library and Museum in Northampton, Massachusetts, a testament to the quiet president’s commitment to his thrice-daily dose of whimsy and fitness.

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