The American Quarter Horse

For anyone who has witnessed the rodeo timed event or been to work on a ranch or watched a Western movie they would have surely viewed a quarter horses in action. The quarter horse is the first breed of horse that is found in the United States and this breed has evolved through mixing of bloodlines between the horses that came from the New World and the Foundation American Quarter horse stock originally included Arab, Turk as well as Barb breeds. This horse is a powerful animal that can run a short distance over a straightway faster than any other horse.

Perfecting the Bloodline

Since the American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) was formed over fifty years ago, breeders have been engaged in the pursuit of perfecting the bloodlines of these horses and have endeavored to produces high quality as well as versatile horses. A characteristic of the American quarter horse is that it may only have limited white markings on the face as well as beneath the knees. Among the most prominent colors found in the quarter horse are sorrel, bay, black, brown, buckskin, chestnut, dun, red dun, grullo, gray, red roan, palomino, and blue roan. Even though the official gray color of these horses is popularly called white, yet there are no white American Quarter Horses.

There are many famous American Quarter Horses and one such was called Wimpy who was bred as well as raised on the King Ranch in Kingsville, Texas and this horse achieved lifelong recognition by being number one in the AQHA registry and later became an outstanding sire which produced great sons as well as daughters, siring as many as 170 foals during his stay at the King Ranch.

Another such horse was named King who was once believed to be the greatest horse of his time and has become AQH's cornerstone even though he never won any performance points he established a dynasty and sired as many as 20 AQHA Champions, 84 Performance Registers of Merit, 12 Racing Registers of Merit as well as three Superior Halter Award winners and 10 Superior Performance Award winners.

The AQHA's Silver Spur Award is the equivalent of the Academy Awards and came into existence in 1991 and is one of the highest awards that are presented to those quarter horses that contribute enough to qualify. Plain Justin Bar, the horse that portrayed CISCO in Dances with Wolves was the first winner of this highly respected award.