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The American Quarter horse traces its roots back to the 1600’s. The horses in America at this time were mostly of Spanish origin, with the greatest amounts of blood from Arabian Barbs and Turk lines.

In 1611 the first significant import of English horses was made to Virginia. These English horses were of native, eastern and Spanish blood.

When the new English horses were bred to the native stock, a compact horse with heavily muscled hindquarters began to develop. These horses were used for the various farm chores like plowing, pulling logs, pulling light carriages, and riding. The horses were bred to be able to do all of these things, which is where the breed’s great versatility started.

After doing chores all day the farmers would take their horses into town for friendly quarter mile races. The fastest over this distance would win, and consequently be bred more often, creating a versatile horse that could now sprint extremely fast over short distances.

As the people moved west they brought their horses with them. Many horses drove the cattle on this long trek. The people noticed how well the horses could work with the cows and the Quarter Horse made another name for itself as the perfect cow pony.

 The Quarter horse can out perform other breeds in many different sports including, calf roping, barrel  racing, team penning and often reining, proving to the world that it is still as versatile as it once was.

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The Quarter Horse was not recognized as an official breed until 1940 when a small group of the larger ranches down in Texas got together to discuss keeping a record of the bloodlines of their horses . 

Unfortunately for the "common folk" only a few large ranches were allowed to register with the new registry. Many were turned away due to leaner Thoroughbred breeding which was popular during that time period in an effort to add more stamina to the popular quarter race horses.

Several other registries were formed to accommodate the various other quarter type lines but most were absorbed by this original registry or later by the National Quarter Horse Registry.

The N.Q.H.R. is the only registry started during that early beginning that has not been absorbed by another larger registry or association.

The National Quarter Horse Registry has over the years absorbed several smaller registries...to read more about our history click on "The Registry" link to your left.