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The American Quarter Horse

Posted by on Apr 16, 2026

He can turn on a dime and give you a nickel back!

A new writing opportunity and project has taken me into a deep dive about the American Quarter Horse. As some may know, the headquarters for the horse registry is located in my part of Texas. Established in 1940 in Fort Worth, the AQHA International Headquarters is now located in Amarillo, Texas, with over 200,000 members and more than 7 million horses registered worldwide since its inception.

This is one of our registered Quarter Horses, Dualy. He is super sweet, lots of “try”, and really worked hard for us over the years. He is now living his best life in the pasture because of laminitis.

Muscular and Compact

In addition to speed, the American Quarter Horse is know for versatility. He is a hard worker and can easily flow from job to job on the ranch, such as a roping horse to cutting a calf out of the herd. The breed originated in the 1600s when English thoroughbreds were crossed with the Spanish Barb. They are easily identifiable by a unique compact, muscular build with powerful hindquarters and a wide chest designed to support sudden stops, quick turns, and rapid changes in direction.

A man afoot is no man a’tall.

A Few Interesting Facts about Quarter Horses

  • Copper Bottom, son of the great Quarter Horse Sir Archy, was brought to Texas in 1839 by General Sam Houston.
  • Quarter-mile horse racing became as much a part of the early West as quilting bees and barn raising, because of the length of most Main Streets in pioneer towns.
  • Cattle trailing outfits kept several quarter horses in their trail driving remudas just for horse racing when they reached the towns along the trail or if they camped near another outfit.
  • The winner of the stallion class at the 1941 Fort Worth Stock Show was Wimpy. He received the No. P-1 in AQHA’s first stud book.
  • AQHA President Lester Goodson presented President Eisenhower with two Quarter Horses, Doodle De Do and Sporty Miss. The horses lived on his farm near Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.
  • The last horse President Ronald Reagan rode was a Quarter Horse call Sergeant Murphy.
  • NFL Hall of Fame quarterback, Terry Bradshaw, is a well-known breeder.
  • Because horses can’t see right below their nose, they use whiskers to help explore and identify things.
  • The fastest a horse has ever run was 55 miles per house by a Quarter Horse named “A Long Goodbye”.
  • A horses heart weighs 9-10 lbs. Secretariat’s heart was 22 lbs.
  • Horses can hear sounds up to 2.4 miles away (4KM).
  • Horses can see almost everything around them with nearly 350 degrees of vision,
  • Horses are herd animals and the ability to graze is vital for a horse’s physical and mental health. Regular grazing reduces stress and boredom.
  • A horse cannot burp or vomit.
  • Horses are measured by hands, which one hand = 4 inches.
June 2, 1956 “Doodle De Do” and “Sporty Miss”

Natalie Cline Bright is an author, blogger, and speaker. She writes books for kids and adults. Her history/cookbooks are both Gold Medallion winners from the Will Rogers Medallion Awards for excellence in contributions to American literature; KEEP ‘EM FULL AND KEEP ‘EM ROLLIN‘ and END OF THE TRAIL EATS feature the history and authentic recipes from the cattle trail along with archival and Natalie’s ranch photography. Find out more about Natalie work, go here: Amazon Author Page, LinkedIn, X, and Instagram @natsgrams for pics of the ranch and Texas sunsets.