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 was heavily muscled hindquarters began to develop. These horses were used for various farm chores like plowing, pulling logs, pulling light carriages, and riding. The horses were bred to be able to do all 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 cattle and the Quarter Horse made another name for itself as the perfect cow pony.

Today the Quarter Horse is still bred for this quality, creating a horse that is amazing to watch as it gets eye to eye with the cow, watching it's every movement. Nearly independent of the rider, the horse can seperate a cow from the herd, hopping back and forth as the cow turns first right and
then left. This use to be helpful tool on the open range when a cow needed seperating, 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's still versatile as it once was.

The American Quarter Horse was not reconized as an official breed until 1940 when several people got together to discuss keeping a record of bloodlines of their horses so not as not to have anymore out-crossing. 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 choosen stallion of the first of the American Quarter Horse Association. 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 into the registry. The American Quarter Horse Association would only register horses after inspection for conformation and since most judges were looking for the bulldog type horses, the others got excluded. Two other registries were even formed to allow them a place to register. This got very cumbersome and so eventually the American Quarter Horse Association merged and allowed the horses, that were registered in either of these registries a place in theirs.

Now the predominat picture of the Quarter Horse is still the bulldog type. It is known for it's gentleness of dispostion 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.