The oldest and most common breed of horses in America are Quarter Horses. The original foundation horse was a combination of Mustang, Arabian Spanish Barb, and Morgan blood and the breed began to appear in the mid 1800s. The first horse officially known as a quarter horse was Steel Dust, foaled in Illinois in 1843, and taken to Lancaster, Texas, in 1846. Much of the later quarter horse breeding took place in the Southwest.
Initially bred for speed the horse is compact and relatively small with an especially well developed hind quarter. Quarter Horses have been clocked at 55 mph! Over time the horses have gotten slightly larger and have been bred with Thoroughbred horses to get more speed and stamina for racing. Today there are some 4,800,000 registered quarter horses world wide.
Quarter horses are the preferred horse for cowboys because of their intelligence, cow sense and athletic ability. They are used in all kinds of rodeo events as well as being the most popular horse for cattle work. Quarter Horses are all I own and ride.
The official breed organization is the American Quarter Horse Association and their website is AQHA.
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