1. When is a QH ... not?

Q. When is a Quarter Horse NOT a Quarter Horse
A. When he's a TB with full Quarter Horse papers.

1) WHAT BUYERS EXPECT IN A QUARTER HORSE

Finally! You're ready and willing to pay good money for that horse, because he’s a genuine Quarter Horse, and you’re expecting him to be all the things American Quarter Horses are famous for.

    You’ve heard about their gentle temperaments and heard tales about laid-back stallions who are careful around children, and don’t break out of their fields. You’ve heard about their cool, relaxed approach to life’s challenges, and perhaps of Quarter Horses getting a leg caught in the fence, and waiting patiently for an owner to come get them loose.

    You’ve admired their strong, muscled legs with short, sturdy cannon bones; wondered at the low-set tails and powerful hindquarters. You know of their working instinct to sort cattle, sheep and other stock. You know about their honesty, and reliability. Perhaps you’ve attended a Western show and seen living proof of their efficient movement and working-horse sensibilities. You’ve discovered their versatility, and gathered enough evidence to convince you to buy one. At last, you’re ready to start your search ...

This is your Quarter Horse, and you’ve got his AQHA registration papers in your hand to prove it. Perhaps yours is even an imported Quarter Horse … further proof of his authenticity, surely.

   You’ve probably heard something of foundation breeding, and realize some QH enthusiasts attach strong significance to it, but it’s all a bit unclear. FQHR says it’s a foundation horse, but NFQHA says it isn’t. FQHA appears to be a typographical melding of these two original organizations, and ultimately, you just give up and forget about it. After all, a Quarter Horse is a Quarter Horse … isn’t it?
    It isn’t.

FACT: Many a purebred, registered, card-carrying American Quarter Horse is actually 75% , 88% or even 94% Thoroughbred. Without a solid knowledge of AQHA bloodlines, the average buyer wouldn't normally be aware of this single fact.

    The Thoroughbred is a remarkable animal. He does what he was bred to do superbly, but he’s not all things to all people. He is not, for example, a parent’s first choice for a family pony. The real question is, did you get what you thought you bought? Would you be disappointed to discover your Quarter Horse is 75% Thoroughbred?  How can it happen? Let’s look at how the breed came about.

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2) WHAT DEFINES A TRUE, GENETICALLY SELECTED, QUARTER HORSE?

Like all great inventions, the American Quarter Horse arose out of the needs of the day.
With ranches popping up all over, a good stock horse was desperately required. Horses with good, steady temperaments were sought out for their ability to concentrate on a serious job, and frivolity was quickly culled out.

    Ranchers knew that the kind of conformation we see typically built around low-set tail could get a horse’s back legs right up under him, and give him a low center of gravity. This was ideal for allowing him to set down on his hindquarters, leaving him light on his front end, like a cat. Thus set, he could follow the erratic movements of a wayward calf without committing the whole bulk of his body, so he was fast and efficient when the calf finally bolted. Breeding stock with this type of hindquarter was favored, and selected for propagation.

    Speed was helpful, but ranchers needed more; a horse that was fast, but calm at the same time, for clear thinking. This key quality truly sets the American Quarter Horse apart. With so many breeds, once speed is introduced, the horse’s excitement level increases significantly, and the horse ‘loses his head’. The ranch model had to be able to ‘keep his head’. Necessarily patient, the average ranch horse was often required to stand tied, but at-the-ready, for hours, while other ranch work was undertaken. He couldn’t waste energy fussing and fiddling at the hitching post. Fussiness and impatience were culled.

    It wouldn’t do, out on the range, to drag oneself aboard a 16.2 mount, while the herd got away. These horses tended to be easy to mount and dismount. A stocky, weight-carrying, body type was treasured for its ability to carry rider, and equipment, all day long. Thriftiness and hardiness paid off in the remudas. Weedier specimens, or those with poor feet, did not routinely survive predation.

    The resulting horse was an integral part of most every ranch job, including fencing and shooting work. Only the best of these working horses earned the privilege of breeding.

    This emerging ranch horse would also bring ranchers’ wives substantial distances to town reliably, often with wagon in tow. At the end of his working week, he’d polish up nicely as an attractive, well-behaved, pleasure mount for going to church on Sunday. A tall order? Nothing doing.
This was America’s Western horse.

    The quarter horse was drawn from a number of different breeds. Many enthusiasts know foundation stock included the Spanish Barb, the wild Mustang, and English Thoroughbred, but there were other breeds that sporadically went into the original mix too. The horses were bred selectively for these particular characteristics, and purposes, not chosen by breed alone. At an exciting time in America’s frontier history, when all wonderful things seemed possible, a unique creature emerged from this powerful need of a superior all-round equine ranch-hand.

    The early quarter horses were called ‘Steel Dust’ horses when exhibiting the bulldog type muscling, and other distinguishable characteristics found in the new breed. These traits were linked by reputation with an early foundation sire of this name. Steel Dust had been bred to hardy Spanish and wild mares to consistently produce much of the early, distinctive progeny of this general type. Often, the contribution of those foundation mares goes unsung, which is more than a little unfortunate.

    It quickly became apparent the ‘Steeldust’ horses, with their remarkable hind-quarters, could outrace Thoroughbreds over the quarter mile just about every time. Hence, the name, quarter-horse. Long distance runners require time to build up speed, but the American Quarter Horse achieves full speed from a standstill, within his first stride. Moreover, he’s rarely distracted by what’s going on around him. Upon discovering their sprinting speed, horseracing enthusiasts, understandably, entered the fray and began to breed the Steeldusts for speed. But particularly for speed, with their breeding choices taken from an entirely different perspective than that of the ranchers.

    When we talk about foundation horses we refer, specifically, to the ranch-type horse many Americans now affectionately call America’s Western Horse. Ironically, it’s precisely because he’s been America’s Western horse, that today’s Quarter Horse continues to provide such a reliable and trustworthy mount for English, and other, disciplines.

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3) WHAT WENT WRONG? HOW DID THE BREED GET DILUTED?

    When the American Quarter Horse Association’s studbook was eventually closed to all other breeds, Quarter Horse Racing was already a booming financial institution. As a result, a special procedure was instituted, that would continue to allow the introduction of what was deemed high quality Thoroughbred blood into the breed. This system works through AQHA’s Appendix Registry. Here’s how:

    Imagine bringing your Thoroughbred mare to my 100% Foundation Quarter Horse, and between them, they produce a colt. Your colt carries 50% Thoroughbred blood, and as such he is registered into AQHA’s Appendix Registry. However, if he achieves high enough status, in showing or racing, to earn Register of Merit, he can be upgraded from the Appendix registry, to the Quarter Horse registry, and can be treated, for breeding purposes, as a 100% purebred Quarter Horse stallion.

    With your ROM colt all grown up, and standing as a ‘purebred’ Quarter Horse stud, consider the unsuspecting lady who brings her Thoroughbred mare to breed with him. She expects to breed a foal with a lovely docile temperament, and all those great Quarter Horse characteristics she has heard about. Her foal will actually carry 75% Thoroughbred breeding, and will also be allowed into the Appendix registry, because its father is now a considered a Quarter Horse … and the cycle can begin yet again.

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    4) WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Shockingly, this drastic bloodline shift from one hundred percent Foundation breeding to 75% Thoroughbred can happen in as little as two generations. This is why many forward thinking breeders regard strict foundation breeding as essential, to ensure the future of the American Quarter Horse, intact with all its extraordinary qualities. Foundation breeding in Quarter Horses, therefore, should not be mistaken for a craze or fad. Its impact on future generations will be profound.

    The fact that there are at least three foundation organizations putting themselves forward as champions of the breed can make things very confusing, to say the least. For me, however, choosing a foundation organization was surprisingly simple and clear. I felt strongly that the calculation formula should be open and consistent. The same formula should be applied to my horse as to yours. The formula should not be vague, nor mysterious, nor should it be unnecessarily complicated.

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5) CHOOSING A FOUNDATION FORMULA
( The technical bit - mainly of interest to serious breeders )
Please feel free to scroll down to the final item 6, which is important.

    Assuming the genuine purpose of foundation breeding is to breed the Quarter Horse back into the Quarter Horse, I felt I must choose the organization that best preserves Quarter Horse qualities, and holds the Quarter Horse to its highest standard. For me, it was imperative not to lose sight of this objective. With a little research, it was quickly discovered that nobody – not even the other organizations – would dispute that the National Foundation Quarter Horse Association’s is the certifying agency holding American Quarter Horses to the most stringent standard.

    Using a certification formula that is simple, open and consistent, NFQHA certifies horses with less than 20% added TB blood over eleven generations, using only AQHA’s own records for their research. This means horses over 80% Foundation, by their calculations, are eligible for NFQHA Certification.
Exemptions are limited to Joe Reed and Oklahoma Star, both of whom have been awarded honorary Registration Numbers by AQHA for their contribution to the breed as founding stallions.
No other exceptions are made.

   Possibly the second strictest organization would be FQHA, which employs the 1940 cut-off rule. That is, they only count TB blood in foals born after 1940. According to their calculations, for example, War Leo would be certified at 100% Foundation. Without the 1940 cut-off, and by NFQHA standards, War Leo comes in at 88% NFQHA - which represents his foundation blood to 11 generations. Interestingly, FQHA only certifies Quarter Horses at percentages above 90% Foundation, according to their formula.

   You can see how complicated this becomes, in the case of War Leo. He would be certified with both associations - but at substantially different foundation percentages. Neither NFQHA nor FQHA make an exemption for Three Bars. Consequently, a horse like Doc Bar comes in at 75% FQHA, but at 50% NFQHA - excluded from certification in both cases. Doc Bar would not be excluded by an association which included Three Bars as a non-Thoroughbred! It is for each Quarter Horse owner to decide for himself whether it is within the gift of a self-crafted Foundation Association to arbitrarily declare any particular Thoroughbred to be a non-Thoroughbred horse.

   Once you begin, the more you compare calculation formulas, the sillier it gets. And this is why I have chosen, for myself, the simplest, strictest, and most transparent calculation formula - NFQHA's. Also, I liked NFQHA's ideas about judging Quarter Horses in competition on the basis of the quality of the horse ... not the amount of silver it was wearing; nor the scars it might have accumulated doing honest work. The Foundation Quarter Horse was a talented, magnificent working partner - not a barbie doll.

   A note about Quarter Horse registration: All American Quarter Horses are required be registered with the American Quarter Horse Association ... this is their only official Breed Association and Registry. Foundation organizations, therefore, can not actually register an American Quarter horse. They can only certify the horse's foundation status, according to their own chosen formula. Foundation organizations are not really registries, and should not present themselves as such. Persons submitting their horse's name for certification should be suspicious of any organization that does not post its calculation formula on its website.

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6) RESPONSIBILITY OF BREEDERS TO THE QUARTER HORSE
WHAT OWNERS SHOULD EXPECT OF BREEDERS

    Today’s Quarter Horse breeders hold the future of this extraordinary breed in their hands. The inherent quality of the Quarter Horse also bears heavily upon the quality and integrity of the American Paint, and Appaloosa breeds, and we are already beginning to see foundation movements rising from the ranks of these organizations as well.

    It’s an awesome responsibility to build upon the shoulders of the watchful, exacting men who created the American Quarter Horse. For me, the goal of foundation breeding is not just to get a high foundation percentage number on my horse’s papers, boosting sales in the short term. The goal is to preserve, over the long term, the spectacular qualities that made the American Quarter Horse great. It’s not, ultimately, one’s commitment to a particular organization that matters. It’s the commitment of responsible breeders to conformation, temperament, type, and foundation breeding; it’s our commitment to the American Quarter Horse that counts.

    For all the Quarter Horse gives us, for every way in which he graciously rises above a standard not even asked of most other breeds - the very least we can do is breed him to his highest potential.

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HICKORY MOON McCUE

Lunar Lucre
X
Pesky Sarsaparilla

Mac is certified at
94% NFQHA

As a three year old stallion, Mac was saddled for the very first time in our round pen, without anything on his head ... in front of a potential buyer, who bought him on the spot.

Bare-headed is our preferred method of saddling horses for the first time, since it ensures the horse has been sufficiently prepared, mentally, to accept the saddle willingly .

Q. When is a Quarter Horse NOT a Quarter HorseA. When he's a TB with full Quarter Horse papers.

Mac is certified at94% NFQHA

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Q. When is a Quarter Horse NOT a Quarter Horse
A. When he's a TB with full Quarter Horse papers.

Mac is certified at
94% NFQHA

Back to Top