Missouri Fox Trotter

History
 In the early 1800s, when it was popular to use your regular work horse as a race horse over the weekends, people needed horses that were strong with enough stamina to work all week and run during the weekends.

 Just after the Louisiana Purchase, many people travelled south, some to the foothills of Missouri's Ozark Mountains. They took with them horses they already owned, namely Arabians, Thoroughbreds, and Morgans, with the intent of crossing them with horses already in the area to create a perfect work-race horse. They were successful. The resulting horses were hard workers, willing to do what they were asked, whether that be working the farm, pulling a buggy, racing, or riding out on the trails. Settlers also noticed that the horse had developed a broken gait, which made them easier to ride.

The fox-trot. credit

 Later, Tennessee Walking Horses, Saddlebreds, and Standardbreds were added to the mix, further refining the Ozark horses. The broken gait developed into what is now called the fox-trot, thus the name Missouri Fox Trotter. Breeders selective bred to pass the gait on, and now the breed is synonymous with that unique gait.

 The breed was popular among doctors, police officers, and post men due to its smooth gait.

 In 1948, the Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Breed Association was founded and opened to any horse that met the requirements. It wasn't until 1983 that the studbook was closed to all except those that had two registered parents. In 2002, the Missouri Fox Trotter became Missouri's state horse.

Breed Description and Uses
 Missouri Fox Trotters are compact and muscular, standing 14 to 16 hands high on average. They have wide barrels, sloping shoulders, rounded withers, and a powerful neck. The head has a straight profile, small ears, and expressive eyes. Fox Trotters come in many colors, including bay, chestnut, black, grey, and pinto.

 The breed is willing and usually easy to control, making them excellent workers, as well as partners. Today, they are used as endurance horses, ranch horses, or just as pleasure horses.

 The fox-trot is a unique and unusually gait in which the front legs walk and the hind legs trot. In addition to the fox-trot, the Fox Trotter has a gentle canter and a smooth, flowing walk.

The Standardbred

 North America's earliest harness racers were the Narragansett Pacer and the Canadian Pacer. The Thoroughbred was crossed with the Canadian Pacer, as well as Morgans, Norfolk Trotters, and Hackneys, creating the Standardbred, which today is known for its distinct racing gaits.

Back in the eighteenth century, trotting races were done under saddle in simple fields. By the mid-eighteenth century, however, farmers began to take the trotting races seriously, and they ungraded to doing them on racetracks with their horses pulling small carts, called sulkies. At the same time, a trotting legend, Mambrino, lived in England.

 In 1788, Mambrino's son, a grey Thoroughbred stallion by the name Messenger, was sent from England to Henry Astor in America.  He proved an excellent sire, producing fast trotters and racehorses with great leg action and heart for the next 20 years. In fact, he is the noted ancestor of many of America's greatest racehorses from New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, including the legendary Man o' War. Every Standardbred is somehow related the the amazing Messenger.  

 One of his greatest descendants was his great-grandson, Hambletonian, the son of a crippled bay mare and an ungainly, belligerent stallion name Abdullah. Hambletonian was sold as a castoff after his birth in upstate New York in 1849. He shocked everyone when he became one of the fastest trotters of all time, producing equally talented offspring.

 Standardbreds are a picture of strength and beauty. Standing 14.2 to 16 hands high, they are slightly shorter than their cousins the Thoroughbreds. Even so, they have the same long legs, powerful build, muscular shoulders and hindquarters, and long, sturdy backs. Their profile is straight, sometimes even squarish. Most often, they come in bay or brown, but some are strawberry roan, chestnut, or grey.

 Racing Standardbreds are recognized by their two unique gaits: the trot and the pace. The pace, a lateral gait, consists of moving the two legs on the same side in unison. The trot is similar, except the legs move in diagonal pairs. Standardbreds are trained to trot in their unique way using hobbles the make the legs move in unison.

Standardbreds in a trotting race.
credit

 Standardbreds are the fastest trotting horses in the world, and have improved upon many other trotting breeds. Today, most trotters can trace their lineage back to Hambletonian, the remarkable son of Abdullah. 

 Standardbreds were first called by that name in 1879. At that time, the harness racers had to trot a mile within a standard time of two minutes and thirty seconds in order to be registered, and were consequently dubbed Standardbreds. Today, Standardbreds can race a mile in as little as one minute and fifty seconds.

 Standardbreds are not only used as racehorses. Much like Thoroughbreds, they are often faced with the plight of early retirement, and can be used as pleasure horses for years after retirement. The can also be used in disciplines other than racing.

 Fun fact: Marguerite Henry writes Born to Trot, a book about a kid dreaming that his Standardbred filly would some day become an excellent trotter.