These miniature metal or china horses were in every gift shop, every souvenir shop, in wayside stands at national parks and monuments, and on glass shelves at almost every gasoline station near the border of any state in the union!  Tourists were the target audience for these horses, and they were extremely popular!

These little guys are only about 2-3" tall and the one in front has his little welded-on souvenir tag showing where he was bought.

When parents would take their kids on vacation, they would be expected to stop at every souvenir stand to buy some small memento of the trip, and inevitably, that meant bringing home a whole carload of 3 inch tall horses, donkeys with packs, and mounted cowboys and indians!  (Moms and Dads went for souvenir thimbles, shot glasses, or spoons, but the kids always went for the four-legged stuff!)

This cute little cowpoke was bought as a souvenir for another cute little cowpoke.  Note the soldered-on shield showing the place it was purchased.

You see these wonderful little critters up for bids on eBay a lot, and they are almost always referred to as "carnival horses".  However, you can usually tell the souvenir horses from the carnival horses because souvenir pedlars usually stuck a foil label, a painted-on city name, or even a soldered-on little metal shield/plaque that gave the name and location where the souvenir was purchased.

Every Kentucky gift shop had thoroughbreds and Derby winners with little painted jockeys perched on their backs.  Gift shops in the Black Hills of Dakota always had little Indians with full war-bonnets riding running or standing horses.  Gift shops in Utah inevitably had a burro with a gold or silver-miner's pack and shovel, with little bags of salt hanging from the pack.  Souvenir stands at local rodeos and horse shows always had western horses in full regalia, or broncs with riders flailing the air.

These miniature cousins of the bigger carny prizes were just as prolific and sought-after as their bigger counterparts, and usually cost under $5.00, so they were grabbed up by tourists and parents looking to satisfy that youngster's need for horseflesh.

When you are buying metal horses, and the description says "Appears to have some sort of label" on the back or saddle, you most likely have found one of the souvenir breed, rather than the carnival breed.  Add these to your metal horse collections, because they are getting rarer by the year.