If you’re curious about what the 2010 Ford Mustang will look like when it debuts next April, its new running horse badge may offer a clue. 

Like the upcoming restyled Mustang, the new pony is more defined and more muscular.

"It’s just a faster-looking steed," said George Saridakis, design manager for the 2010 Mustang.

A stronger, more dynamic pony badge with defined edges and crisper forms in a subtly-toned, tinted-chrome finish will charge across the grilles of the V-6 and GT versions of the 2010 Mustang. For the first time, a black-chrome version of the Mustang pony badge will be available on the new GT grille.

"We wanted to give the Mustang pony a more realistic feel," said Douglas Gaffka, chief designer for the 2010 Mustang. "We lifted the head to make the pony more proud, and tipped the neck into the wind to give it a feeling of greater speed and better balance.

It’s more chiseled and defined, and more realistic in terms of proportion to an actual Mustang."

Like the Mustang itself, the Mustang emblem has a proud heritage. The original logo was drawn by Phil Clark for the Mustang I. It was refined for the Mustang II in 1974 by Charles Keresztes, a former member of Hungary’s Olympic equestrian team. The pony continued on the front grille through 1978 but was replaced by a Ford emblem through 1993. The running horse returned in 1994 with some refinements and was updated again in 2005.