Breed Description:
For
over 200 years, the saddle horse has lived in the hills and valleys of
many parts of Kentucky. Originally bred by the mountain people for the
demanding needs of farm life, the horse which had been secluded for
many years became noticed and domesticated in the late
1980’s. Over the last twenty years these horses have become
a highly sought after "pleasure horse" in all of
Kentucky as well as around the world, for their easy going temperament,
intelligence, versatility, willingness, and most notably, a smooth,
natural four-beat gait. Many members of long-time Kentucky families
remember well the stories of the many extraordinary feats that were
told about these horses by their grandfathers and great grandfathers
around the dinner table.
In
1989, Robert Robinson, Jr., a native of Irvine, Kentucky formed the
Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association® (KMSHA) to document
and preserve the ancestry and rich heritage of the mountain saddle
horse. In 2002 the Spotted Mountain Horse Association® was
formed, (a subsidiary of the KMSHA) to register mountain horses that
had “spots” of white that were considered to much
coverage for any of the existing mountain horse breeds, in order to
meet their solid color standards.
This
Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse and the Spotted Mountain Horse breeds,
each with their own distinctive characteristics and genetic DNA
markers, are recognized by the University of Kentucky, Equine Parentage
Testing and Genetic Research Center as their own unique breed of Horse.
