The American Quarter Horse traces its roots back to the 1600’s. The horses in America at this time were mostly of Spanish origin, with the greatest amounts of blood from Arabian Barbs and Turk lines. In 1611 the first significant import of English horses was made to Virginia. These English horses were of native, eastern and Spanish blood. When the new English horses were bred to the native stock, a compact horse with heavily muscled hindquarters began to develop. These horses were used for the various farm chores like plowing, pulling logs, pulling light carriages, and riding. The horses were bred to be able to do all of these things, which is where the breed’s great versatility started. After doing chores all day the farmers would take their horses into town for friendly quarter mile races. The fastest over this distance would win, and consequently be bred more often, creating a versatile horse that could now sprint extremely fast over short distances. As the people moved west they brought their horses with them. Many horses drove the cattle on this long trek. The people noticed how well the horses could work with the cows and the Quarter Horse made another name for itself as the perfect cow pony.
Today horses are still bred for this quality, creating a horse that is amazing to watch as it gets eye to eye with the cow, watching its every movement. Nearly independent of the rider, the horse can separate a cow from the herd, hopping back and forth as the cow turns first right and then left. This use to be a helpful tool on the open range when a cow needed separating, now it is a competitive sport called cutting. The Quarter horse can out perform other breeds in many different sports including, calf roping, barrel racing, team penning and often reining, proving to the world that it is still as versatile as it once was. The American Quarter Horse was not recognized as an official breed until 1940 when several people got together to discuss keeping a record of the bloodlines of their horses so as not to have anymore out-crossings. The American Quarter Horse Association was created. The first twenty spots on the registry were kept for the foundation animals. Number one was for the winner of the 1941 Quarter Horse competition. Number twenty was for a chosen stallion of the first president of the AQHA. The other eighteen stallions were voted on over the next few years. The members tried to only admit those horses that were good bulldog type horses. This term is used to describe the horses that were very muscular and lower to the ground, as opposed to the thoroughbred type horse with long legs bred for racing. There were many debates on letting the thoroughbred type horses into the registry. The AQHA would only register horses after inspection for conformation and since most judges were looking for the bulldog type horse the others got excluded. Two other registries were even formed to allow them a place to register. This got very cumbersome and so eventually AQHA merged and allowed the horses that were registered in either of these registries a place in theirs. Now the predominant picture of the Quarter Horse is still the bulldog type. It is known for its gentleness of disposition and versatility of use. This horse is often considered the perfect family horse, because of its calmness with young children, but thrill for adults especially when performing on the trail or in its many wonderful sports. |
