Though often mistaken for a Tennessee Walking Horse, his sire was a Thoroughbred and his dam a grade (unregistered) mare that, like Trigger, was a palomino.

Rogers used "Trigger Jr."/"Allen's Golden Zephyr", though, at stud for many years, and the horse named "Triggerson" that actor Val Kilmer led on stage as a tribute to Rogers and his cowboy peers during the Academy Awards show in March 1999 was reportedly a grandson of Trigger Jr.[3] Golden Cloud made an early appearance as the mount of Maid Marian, played by Olivia de Havilland in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938).

"Spending as much time as he does in hotels, theaters, and hospitals, this ability comes in might handy and it's conceded by most trainers to be Trigger's greatest accomplishment."

While appearing in a show at the Glasgow Empire on Sunday 14 February 1954, Trigger was presented with a kilt, the material being Dress Stewart Tartan.

After the original Trigger (Golden Cloud) died in 1965 at Rogers' new ranch in Apple Valley, California, Rogers arranged for Everett Wilkens of Bischoff's Taxidermy in Los Angeles (now Bischoff's Taxidermy and Animal FX in Burbank, California) to preserve and mount the horse.

[6] The hide was professionally stretched over a foam likeness of Trigger, and the resulting mount was put on display in the Roy Rogers-Dale Evans Museum when it opened in Apple Valley in 1967.

[11] As of 2018, Chet Hitt and Bob Tinsley, installed Trigger's statue at the entrance of the Spirit River Center located on Apple Valley Road.

Buford was once a prominent leather tanning town, and in the 1940s, Rogers had a custom saddle made for Trigger at the Bona Allen Company.