History of the American Quarter Horse






	The principle development of the Quarter Horse was in the southwestern part of the United States in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, eastern Colorado, and Kansas. Some breed historians have maintained that it is the oldest breed of horses in the United States and that the true beginning of the Quarter Horse was in the Carolinas and Virginia. Historian Nelson Nyesuggested that the "Chickasaw Horses" were the true beginning of the Quarter Horse. These were small blocky horses, probably of Spanish extraction, which the colonists secured from the Chickasaw Tribe, they were then adapted for a variety of uses. The colonists were quite interested in short races, and it was only natural that they should have attempted to increase the speed of their horses. To this end some of the best early Thoroughbreds that were brought to the United States. Including the horse Janus, who was brought to the United States before the English Stud Book was established. Janus, and a horse by the name of Sir Archy, as well as several other early Thoroughbred stallions were instrumental in the improvement of these local running horses. The early improvement in the Quarter Horse (so called because of its great speed at one quarter of a mile) and the early development of the Thoroughbred in the United States were closely associated. Some sires contributed notably to both breeds. Many short-distance horses were registered in the American Stud Book as Thoroughbreds when the Stud Book was established, even though they did not trace in all lines to imported English stock. Some may argue that it is more logical to assume that the true establishment of the Quarter Horse took place some time later in the southwest range country, rather than in colonial times. It was in the southwest that the true utility value of these short-distance horses became widely appreciated. The cowman found the Quarter Horse quick to start, easy to handle, and of a temperament suitable for handling cattle under a wide variety of conditions. Even in the Southwest much was unknown of the breeding of many of the horses that were classified and registered in the 1940s as Quarter Horses. It is logical, therefore, to conclude that until the Stud Book was established and the pedigrees were based on fact rather than on memory and assumptions, the Quarter Horse should have been called a type of horse rather than a breed. The Foundation and Improvement of the Breed ~ A Blending of Bloodlines. It is difficult to give the exact origin of the present-day Quarter Horse because the blending of bloodlines produced a suitable short-distance horse started in colonial areas prior to the Revolutionary War. This blending of bloodlines and the infusion of Thoroughbred blood was continued in the southwestern range territory as the cow country developed. Cowboys wanted to be well mounted. Ranchers tried to breed the kind of horses on which these men could work cattle and that could also be used in the age-old sport of racing. The Quarter Horse was not raced on carefully prepared tracks but was raced on any suitable open space. Organized races were the exception rather than the rule with many of the races being run as a “match race” after a private wager between owner or riders. In the Southwest country as in the East, no particular attention was made to keep short-distance horses as a distinct breed. Fast horses whose offspring made good cow ponies were crossed on existing stock of mares. Many times these mares carried Spanish, Arabian, Morgan, or Standardbred breeding, and some have been referred to as “cold blooded” mares. The naming of horses after persons was a common practice, and often when the horses were sold their names were changed; such practices have led to no end of confusion in attempting to verify pedigrees after the horses, breeders, and owners were deceased. The Contribution of Steel Dust. The first horse of Quarter type that attracted a great deal of attention in the Southwest was Steel Dust, foaled in Illinois in 1843, and taken to Lancaster, Texas, in 1846. He was a blood bay that stood 15 hands high and weighed approximately 1,200 pounds. Steel Dust was sired by Harry Bluff and traced to Sir Archy. The popularity of Steel Dust as a running horse and as a sire of running horses and cow horses caused many horses that descended from him, or were of similar type, to be called “Steel Dust” horses. This name was quite common until the American Quarter Horse Association was established and the name Quarter Horse was officially adopted. Some Other Early Sires. Other outstanding stallions were introduced into Texas before and after Steel Dust. Among these were Cooper Bottom by Sir Archy, foaled in Pennsylvania in 1828. In 1839 he was taken by General Sam Houston to Texas, where his descendants were considered very fast and made excellent cow horses. In 1849, Old Shiloh, foaled in Tennessee in 1844, was brought to Texas. He was four generations removed in the sire line of Sir Archy. Lock’s Rondo, three generations removed in the sire line from Shiloh, was foaled in Missouri about 1866, and was taken to Texas about 1868. Later he was also used as a sire in New Mexico. In 1889, Traveler, a horse of unknown pedigree, was shipped to Texas in a carload of horses, and legend has it that he had originated in Kentucky. Traveler was apparently not considered a valuable horse because he was used on a scraper and at one time changed hands in a crap game. Traveler and his descendants were mated to some excellent mares, and many Quarter Horses today trace to him in male line of descent. The Most Influential Sire. The most famous of all sires in the establishment of the Quarter Horse breed was Peter McCue, foaled in 1895, and bred by Samuel Watkins of Petersburg, Illinois. Peter McCue was registered as a Thoroughbred but evidence was later presented that he was not sired by the horse indicated in his official pedigree but was instead sired by Dan Tucker, who in turn traced his sire line to Shiloh. Peter McCue stood for service in Texas, western Oklahoma, and in Colorado, and most modern Quarter Horses trace to him. Of the 11,510 Quarter Horses that have been registered prior to January 1, 1948, 2,304 of them traced in sire line to Peter McCue through his sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons. Traveler was the only horse that approached him in importance of sire lines with 749 similar descendants that has been registered up to that date. The Use of Thoroughbred Sires and Mares. The outstanding sires in the Quarter Horse type have not always been horses that traced in sire lines of descent to recognized Quarter Horses; some trace to registered Thoroughbreds. In addition, many of the mares to which Quarter Horses have been mated have been Thoroughbred mares and in pre-AQHA days, mares of other breeds. So it can truly be said that the breed has been and still is in a formative period. Some breeders have not objected to Thoroughbred breeding provided the horses were of the correct type, while others today feel that the use and infusion of Thoroughbred blood has been abused and overly saturated within certain circles. Eighteen of the first nineteen registration numbers assigned to horses in Vol. I of the American Quarter Horse Stud Book were saved for living horses that had proved themselves as outstanding sires of offspring of Quarter Horse type. Examination of the pedigrees of these horses indicates that many of them carried in excess of 50 per cent of Thoroughbred breeding, and only a very few of them did not carry some known Thoroughbred breeding rather close up in their pedigrees. Noted Early Breeders. Many ranchers or persons interested in short-distance racing have contributed to the development of the Quarter Horse. Probably the first really noted improver was William Anson of Christoval, Texas. Mr. Anson was an excellent stockman who collected a band of horses of Quarter type. Among the best stallions he used was Harmon Baker by Peter McCue. Mr. Anson not only bred, used and raced Quarter Horses but he also was a student of the early history of Quarter Horses and attempted to concentrate bloodlines that he felt were useful in racing and range horses. Another noted Texas breeder was W.T. Waggoner of Vernon and Fort Worth, Texas. Mr. Waggoner collected the fastest short-distance horses that he could obtain, and it was said that whenever he found a horse faster than any he already owned he attempted to purchase it. Many of the modern Quarter Horses are only a generation or two away from Waggoner breeding because after Waggoner’s death, his estate carried on his breeding operations for many years. In the foundation of the American Quarter Horse Stud Book, the term Waggoner bred was considered pedigree enough for registration - so esteemed were his horses by other breeders and by founders of the breed association. Four other breeders who have had considerable influence in the development of the Quarter Horse through their long association with the breed and through their successful breeding operations were: Coke T. Roberds, Hayden, Colorado; George Clegg, Alice, Texas; S.C. Blake, Pryor, Oklahoma; and Dan Casement, Manhattan, Kansas. Present-Day Breeders. One of the best-known breeding establishments of Quarter Horses at the present time is the King Ranch, Kingsville, Texas. The King Ranch raised good cattle horses for many years and obtained Old Sorrel, a son of Hickory Bill, as a colt from George Clegg of Alice, Texas; Old Sorrel was foaled in 1915 and died in 1945. This horse proved to be such an outstanding cow horse and sire of cow horses, that a line breeding program was developed at the King Ranch to maintain his relationship in the herd. Considerable Thoroughbred breeding has also been used in the development of the King Ranch Quarter Horses. It would be very difficult to mention all the breeders that have contributed to the Quarter Horse. With the changing "trends" in the overall face of the Quarter Horse as a breed, many breeders have not made an attempt to keep their horses before the public but have been content to raise their own horses, for their own personal purposes. Today's Quarter Horses in many ways have gotten further and further from the original body type that the founders of the AQHA sought to immortalize. The original Quarter Horse was a creature known for their versatility and ability to perform a myriad of tasks athletically and skillfully. "Specialty Horses" as the term is so frequently used in today's Quarter Horse circles would not have been the desired product of early breeders. How would the benefactors and ambassadors of the early AQHA view the "Modern Quarter Horse" when many of the animals in multiple breeding programs and show rings would never have met the physical criteria statutes set forth by original governing body of the Association? These men and women were true pioneers in every sense of the word having forged the best known of "American Breeds". Granted the American Quarter Horse has always been a "melting pot" of blood; Spanish Barbs brought over by the Spaniards in the 1500's, which of course influenced and became the seed of the Mustang of the American west. Arabians, who in turn influenced the Thoroughbreds of Europe, the Morgan which in and of itself is a mixing of various bloods, and even certain Draft breeds all contributed to the original Quarter Horse. These are widely known and readily accepted facts in the history of the American Quarter Horse. However the one thing thing that the early Quarter Horses all had in common was that they had to pass an inspection and certain other criteria to attain the honor filled status of "Quarter Horse". A breed standard was set forth to create a guideline for determining the value of each individual animal. If a horse did not meet the "type" criteria set forth by the breed standard that had been indoctrinated, then they were not eligible for registration. The ruling to not close the original AQHA Stud Books made by the AQHA executive committee of the of the 1960's forever changed the face of the American Quarter Horse, and their place in history and various forms of competition.



	*"Are the BULLDOG* Quarter Horses becoming extinct?" An article written by Robert Denhardt Published in the April 1963 Western Horseman**
	The Modern Quarter Horse is not the animal that the association thought is was after it was established. It is difficult to recall anyone who was in on the ground floor, with the possible exception of Jim Minnick (who frankly and sincerely believed that the half-breed type was best) who would have registered most of the horses showing up with numbers today. Jack Hutchins would not have because he owned LOBO; Bill Warren would not have, he had PANCHO; Lee Underwood had CHEIF; Dan Casement BALLEYMOONEY; and Ernest Browning BILLY BYRNE and TONY, R.A. Brown, Bill Cooper, Roy Parks and Jack Casement would have felt the same. We all loved the sawed-off, short-eared, heavily-muscled little pony that was about as much like most "Modern" Quarter Horses/Track Stars, as a bulldog is like a grey hound. The founders of the AQHA were disciples of Uncle Billy Anson, who said (and they believed because seeing is believing) "The immense breast and chest, enormous forearms, loins and thighs, and the heavy layers of muscles are not to be found in any other breed in the same proportions". Most of their horses had these characteristics. Do the modern prima donnas? They understood Dan Casement when he said the Quarter Horse's jaw seemed to serve as a fitting symbol of the tenacity and determination which marks the strain. Today any of the better sprinting Thoroughbreds are as well muscled as the average Quarter Horse, and it is difficult to tell many of our modern AA and AAA Quarter Horses from the better type sprinting Thoroughbreds. How many horseman would have made this mistake with a Little Joe, a Tony, a Joe Moore, a Juanita, a Joe Bailey, a Lobo, or a Jimmy Alfred? The horse the founders were trying to perpetuate and save would never have been confused with a Thoroughbred. He was a hand shorter, and at least a 100 pounds heavier. These horsemen were PROUD of the difference. You did not have to spend your time trying to find a few Quarter Horse characteristics, you could see them all over! The shorter neck, the lower withers, the larger jaws, the shorter ears, the closer-coupled back, the abbreviated cannon, and short more upright pasterns, the higher and more sloping croup, and the quiet and intelligent look. On some of the "modern" numbered horses you would be lucky to find any of these characteristics. Here is the worse part many of the younger breeders do not know the difference! If they knew that they were actually breeding out these characteristics that are so typical of the horses this organization was founded on that would be one thing; but so many of them think that they are breeding the "ideal" type. It may be THEIR ideal type but it certainly is not the ideal type as was envisioned by the founders of the AQHA. They are not breeding the ideal Quarter Horse. We have had the chance to visit with breeders all the way across the country. Almost all of them will tell you about their priceless bloodlines and how much like some famous ancestor their horse looks like. Two cases in particular come to mind. One breeder was following the Joe Bailey bloodline. His sire, a grandson of the old horse, was a sorrel and a stallion, but after that all resemblance ceased. His horses, only about 12% south Texas blood, were good horses. They were fast horses, they were selling horses, they had AQHA numbers, but they were not the type of Quarter Horse that was the typical type of the 1930's that inspired the formation of the AQHA. The other case was a breeder raising what he called "Billy Horses". He lived some 1200 miles from the land of the Billy horses, but he had purchased a descendant of Joe Moore, and he had been breeding Thoroughbred and half-Thoroughbred mares. His horses too had AQHA numbers, but they would not have been registered in the early days of the AQHA, because they did not meet the "type" requirement. We were eating dinner in the home of one of these breeders and looking out the dining room window, we could see his horses grazing on the irrigated pasture land. He suddenly made a remarkable statement. "We have better Quarter Horses today than any of the early breeders ever had. Ours can run a quarter mile in 22 to 23 seconds, while the old timers were lucky to run one in 24." Just then the noon train whistled and all of his beauties threw their heads up and ran for dear life. I was immediately taken back to a short race I had seen in South Texas about 20 years earlier. Two short-horses were matched to run a quarter. We had driven all night to get to the race and then sat around most of the next day waiting on them to get started. The track was little more than two parallel dirt trails running along the railroad track and ended by dipping into a gully and winding out the other side. Twice a train rattled by, but neither horse paid it any mind, and the chances are that the gelding out of Mexico had never before been that close to one. Finally they got off to a good ask-and-answer start. They ran the chained quarter mile in 23.45 seconds by my watch. After the heated discussion that followed the brown gelding returned back across the river and the sorrel stallion to his patched-up 10 foot paddock, in the nearby village. The modern day Quarter Horse on beautifully worked tracks, without innumerable false starts, with expert training, special feed, and a liberal infusion of hot blood can undoubtedly better the time made by those two horses that day on the Nueces River. BUT (and this is the important part) could they have equaled the 23.45 if they had been handled the same way, no care, no corn, no Johnson gray hay? I doubt it. There are other points to be considered also. There is a certain pride and satisfaction in owning and raising a horse that not only fills your eye, but also fulfills and satisfies your sense of utility and worthiness. A number of years ago Dan Casement wrote, that the Quarter Horse has no equal in working cattle, the one and only field of equine activity wherein horses are destined never to slump in positive economic value. When he wrote these words they were true, and to a large extent they still are, although the present days trends of Quarter Horse breeding are endangering this. Can a temperamental race horse (and 90% of them are high strung) standing 16 hands or better with long pasterns and cannons, do the job like the old-tyme Quarter Horses? How many Thoroughbred running horses have made the grade in the past? Relatively few in the numbers of their overall population. If the "Modern Day" Quarter Horse is heading this direction and by all appearances he is, then may it be safely assumed that his economic utility is diminishing at an equal speed? Cow sence and how or why a horse has it is such a controversial subject that it is difficult to find any exact answers. However it would appear that our modern day Quarter Horses are losing this quality as they are being bred for the track or the pleasure ring. Just why there is a relationship between the ability to maintain speed and hot-headedness is difficult to say, but it is certain that only a level headed, cool in a jack pot, will make a top cow horse. Nobody wants to ride a horse that will fret and prance as long as there is another horse in front of him, or one that will dance and jog for an hour after roping a critter. You may say that we are talking about spoiled horses, and maybe that is true. How many though have you known that had a liberal infusion of Thoroughbred blood and how many were the old-fashioned Quarter Horses of the sometimes derogatorily spoken "bulldog" type? Is the modern, pampered Quarter Horse, bedded and blanketed in a warm stall, with a gallon of oats morning and night, and sweet hay in between, as good a horse as was his grandfather and great grandfather who worked hard on a ranch all day then turned out in a small trap all night to forage for himself winter and summer? These rugged cow ponies didn't break down as 3 and 4 year olds, many times in fact they were not even broke to saddle till they reached the age of 4. The reason for this was that they by age four had stronger legs, larger bones, shorter cannons, and more constitution. Nature made them for hard work and they could take it. No they did not give one the impression of fleetness, and why should they when they were truly not built for that, and yet they could run so very fast that it could (and would) literally scare a grown man for 300 or 400 yards. They had a rugged power which made them so dependable, even if some of them were a little on the coarse side. True to some they lacked the beauty and refinement, or as the college professor might say the "quality" of the modern Quarter Horse, but they made up for this lack of refinement with their unbelievable ability to get a job done. Not just one job either, but a varied and demanding combination of roping, cutting, running, and just general travel over and through all types of terrain. The foregoing is not meant to be critical of the modern Quarter Horse that has been changed by the constant and continued influx of Thoroughbred Blood, in an effort to make the Quarter Horse and his qualities and refinements more similar to the Thoroughbred each day. It is more in hope that the average breeder is not aware of what is happening, and that he may some day have the honor of returning to the original BILLY and STEELDUST type. It is possible that the "type" the founders of the AQHA tried to perpetuate is no longer the ideal of some modern breeders, and they are therefore changing the body type of the breed for their own purposes. I feel that many of the old timers and a few of the younger people influenced by older beliefs will never be able to to "love" this new Quarter Horse, not like they did and do the "Steeldust Type" of cow ponies of yesteryear that are still carefully and zealously cultivated by those few remaining disciples of the cause. In the introduction to the first Volume of the AQHA Stud Books are found the following words; "The prime purpose to which this association shall aim is the perpetuation of the qualities which are the Quarter Horse's unique and invaluable traits. To do this successfully requires the scrupulous preservation of the physical characteristics which clearly mark and distinguish this horse from any other breed. It is wholly by virtue of these characteristics, firmly fixed by generations of purposeful breeding that their horse possesses those priceless qualities that make him supreme in his own field." In this author's opinion, far too many horses have been, and are being registered, that do not have the Quarter Horse's unique and invaluable conformation. It is a drift that many of us may live to regret if it goes unchecked. To those others who may never have been as enthusiastic about the "Steeldust Type" pony ( or may have never known the type in the first place) this trend may not seem a serious threat. To many however this type of Quarter Horse will always be the greatest horse to ever have a saddle thrown atop his back.

	Time and only time shall prove what lay in store for the Quarter Horse as a breed, and its' inevitable evolution, for better or for worse. In light of some of the recent rulings made by the directorship of the AQHA, concern for the "True Quarter Horse" is being felt deeply by some breeders, including this one. There may possibly come a day, (though I hope I never live to see it) that the "bulldog" Quarter Horse type does truly slip into extinction. What a tragic and profound loss it will be to the equine industry should this ever come to fruition. What a loss to American History, for the original Quarter Horse in all its bulk of muscle and glory, are truly as much a representative of America as are baseball, hot dogs, and apple pie. It was the difficulty and prestige that came with obtaining a "permanent" set of AQHA papers in the early years, that made those horses so coveted. It was the pride in which a breeder/owner displayed these papers on the walls of their homes next to beloved photographic images of those same animals, animals that immortalized the very essence of the breed. It was this reverence and devotion to the horses of the 1930's, 1940's, and 1950's that built the AQHA, but it was the HORSES that made the breed and history. To forget those of the past is to say they never contributed anything worth remembering. Without the contribution of the original Quarter Horses, today's "modern" Quarter Horse would not exist. As a current day breeder of American Quarter Horses what will my contribution be? Will my breeding operation produce an AQHA Champion? I suppose that is a possibility, and while it would be exciting for me (as it would be for any breeder) to do so, this is not and never has been my goal. My goal is to remember what a Quarter Horse started out to be, and to continue to try to produce animals that would have "made the cut" in the early days of the AQHA. It is my duty to remember and aspire toward the standards set forth by my predecessors, to breed for animals that they themselves would have been proud to own. To become a horseman/horsewoman of the caliber that these astute individuals were, is a worthy and admirable challenge. I will do my best to meet that challenge with the grace and determination of my forbearers. Most importantly I will remember the ideals and mandates set forth by these devoted banner carriers of the breed, and will do my best to not let their fortitude and dreams become completely eroded by time and changing political views. I will continue to raise and promote with pride, the original and true Quarter Horse. I will, as it says at the top of each of my pages on this site, continue to "Breed for the Future by using the Bloodlines of the Past". Jennifer Long-Hermesch


	This page last updated 02/24/2005

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