A group of individuals, insightful and knowledgeable, wanted to devise a program whereby Americans would always have enough horses for any fight in which the United States, as a rising world power, might find themselves.
The bloodline for these horses came from several
A group of individuals, insightful and knowledgeable, wanted to devise a program whereby Americans would always have enough horses for any fight in which the United States, as a rising world power, might find themselves.
The bloodline for these horses came from several different areas including the conquistadores and their Spanish mustangs, as well as the mountain men with their French influence in the larger French ancestry which includes Percheron and Canadian.
In 1680, thousands of horses were released onto the Great Plains in the Great Pueblo Revolt which was the beginning of the vast wild Mustang herds. The Nez Perce, Ute, Crows, and Cayuse were highly skilled horsemen who developed the Indian Paint breed and the well-known Apaloosa. The Medicine Hat Pinto was said to have special powers and has a nostalgic story all its own.
The athletic, hardy, and quick mustang were something the military found attractive due to their availability however their small size was a problem. The Morgan, Draft, Thoroughbred, and Quarter horse were then introduced into the wild herds in the hopes of rectifying this issue. Ranchers in Oregon, Nevada, and northern California kept up remount breeding operations having bred the Mustang with other breeds into a larger animal.
The 352 page book entitled, "War Horse," fully captures the role these magnificent animals played in establishing the breeding standards that are so respected today. It also recounts the U.S. Remount Service from 1908 until 1948. This service established a special program making government stallions available to private mare owners which would mean a breeding pool of horses that could be available at any time for military use. The heritage of Roy Roger's "Trigger" can be traced back to the U.S. Remount Service.
The horse industry of today owes a great deal to the war horse. It is actually seen as one of the best-kept secrets in the industry.
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