The American Quarter Horse

Order                                 Family                          Genus&species

Perissodactyla                   Equidae                         Equus caballus

This horse breed began with the English settlers who inhabited the state of  Virginia.  The
imported horses of Asian and European ancestry were bred with horses which were
already in America and later with Thoroughbred animals.  The end result was a compact,
powerfully muscled horse with larger than usual hind quarters.....the quarter horse.

This animal  was used on the farm to pull plows to get the ground ready for planting and to
pull wagons used to haul the crops that were being harvested.  The quarter horse would then
pull the wagons into town where the crops were sold and where the now empty wagons were,
once again loaded with seeds, planting equipment and other supplies to start the process all
over again.

It was soon discovered that this horse was particularly well suited for racing and that it was
especially proficient at running a quarter mile,.... in fact ,so much so, that they soon gained a
reputation for being unbeatable in a quarter mile ( which is how the breed got it's name.)
The following graphic shows a quarter horse race which has just started.  Quarter horses
have such a lightning quick start that the jockeys have to hold on to the horse's mane to
keep from being thrown off.

Gradually the quarter horse was recognized for it's other skills: speed, agility, strength, and innate
abilities for cutting cattle.  This is a process where a certain cow is targeted from among the herd
and is chased from the herd by swift back and forth motions of the cutting horse.  This breed
was quite adept at culling cows from the herd and even if the targeted cow tried to elude the
horse by mingling with the other members of the herd, the quarter horse invariably would find her
and once again begin cutting her from the herd.   Cows were separated from the herd for several
reasons:  1.  They may be pregnant and need special care  2.  They may be sick and require a
veterinarian's care or  3.  They may have been sold to another rancher and were being chased
into a holding pen until their new owner could take possession or,  4. Quite possibly, they were
headed for the branding iron.

Above is a nice looking reddish-brown quarter horse, with white markings, (common in this breed.)
The following graphic shows the quarter horse in action...steering (no pun intended) a cow towards
a holding pen.  This breed is also very popular as the horse of choice for barrel-racing at fairs and
rodeos throughout the United States and Canada.

Quarter horses will thrive on a diet of hay, oats, corn and barley but , if the need arises,
can also exist on dry prairie grass and scrub brush.  Their stomach is adapted to process
large amounts of roughage.  This roughage acts as a sort of scrub brush to keep their
digestive system flushed free of buildups of undigested food matter which can sometimes
cause constipation.

The average height of the quarter horse, to the withers ( tip of the shoulders),  is around
14.4 hands or 57.6 inches.  They commonly weigh between 1,000 and 1,300 lbs.  Males
reach sexual maturity at around 3 years and the female at around 1 1/2 to 2 years.  The
mating season is during a four month period ( April to July ) with a gestation  period of
11 months.  The usual result is 1 colt.  Their lifespan is from 20 to 30 years, depending
on how hard they are worked and how much care is given to their well-being.

Although quarter horses are found, literally, throughout the world;  they are concentrated
mainly in the United States, Canada, South America and Australia and are used wherever
there are large numbers of cattle to be kept in a herd.

Even though this breed is relatively new ( they were first bred around 300 years ago) and
the breed association was only founded in 1940, the quarter horse has evolved into the most
popular riding horse in the world with a breed register of well over 3 million horses.

There are 11 foundation quarter horse families with the root of the breed being the sires
Janus and Sir Archy.   Janus, an imported English horse who died in 1780 was responsible,
along with his son (of the same name) for the great Printer bloodline, from which came many
of the more influential and famous quarter horses of the earlier time period.  Sir Archy, son
of the first English derby winner, Diomed, was also sire to many of the American Saddlebred
bloodline which is famous for trotting and pacing horses.  The Shiloh, Old Billy, Steel Dust, and
Cold Deck bloodlines can be traced to this influential sire.  Two of the best and most famous
of the 20th century sires, Joe Bailey and Peter McCue, are also decendents of Sir Archy.

  Press play below, to hear Quarterhorse sounds.

Click on the following graphic to see a bigger map of Virginia, where the quarter horse breed
first originated.

Check back next month for our December "Creature of the Month"  The Wild Turkey.

                                                                HOMEPAGE