History
Missouri Fox Trotting Horse
The comfortable breed from the Ozarks in Missouri and Arkansas
The "Cowboy’s Rolls Royce" (for Europeans) or “The Cowboy’s Cadillac” (for Americans)
The breed of the Missouri Fox Trotting Horse is some 150 years old. The early settlers and pioneers originally developed the breed in the Ozark Mountains, a plateau covering southern Missouri and northern Arkansas. The Ozarks are famous for their rough and rocky country. The need for a horse being able to travel long distances in a smooth manner was imminent..
1821 the first settlers crossed the Mississippi river to settle in the Ozarks. Most of them came from Tennessee, Kentucky, or Virginia and brought their horses with them. The typical gait of the Foxtrotter provides a high degree of surefootedness and therefore the settlers started breeding those horses with the “broken walk”.
The name
given most specific for this breed is the Foxtrot. All horses of this breed
have a natural, genetic ability to perform a 4-beat broken diagonal gait with a
distinctive 1-2-3-4 rhythm, that’s created by the horse, moving its front foot
a split second before its opposite rear foot. The beauty of a foxtrotting horse
is, that there are two or more feet on the ground at all times. On both the front
and back ends, the horse will set one foot down as it picks the other foot up,
and for a moment both feet will be touching the ground. That´s what makes the
gait so smooth, the horse is in contact with the ground at all times – it is
the best balanced gait, there is in a horse. Thanks to this gait, the rider
hardly feels any movements, making a very long ride always a pleasure in the
saddle.The horses walk in front and trot in hind. This extremely safe gait
prevents movements for the rider and quick fatigue for the horse.
Other gaits
are a fast flat foot walk, a four beat gait, in which each foot is picked up
and set down in an even cadence and a very comfortable canter, a broken
three-beat gait.
Thanks to these qualities, the Foxtrotter quickly became the favorite horse in
the Ozarks. Everyone, traveling long distances, including ranchers, farmers,
doctors, sheriffs and tax persons, preferred a Foxtrotter. When motor vehicles
took over part of the tasks, the function of the Foxtrotter as all all-around
horse began to change. Foxtrotters have always been and still are bred to be
used in the cattle business. Quickly they got their nickname: “The Cowboy’s
Cadillac”. Despite the increasing availability of cars and trucks, the
Foxtrotter is still the most desired horse for hard ranch work, especially in
Missouri, the second biggest State in the cattle business.
Trail and pleasure riders as well as the Park- and Forest Rangers all over the
United States have discovered the advantages of the Fox Trotting Horse. A
Ranger in the Yellowstone National Park will find no better way of traveling,
than on the back of a Fox Trotting Horse.
1948 the
MFTHBA (Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Breed Association) was founded. Back then,
breeders often bred both Tennessee Walkers and Missouri Foxtrotters and
consequently often stallions were double registered. Eventually, as the Walkers
and Foxtrotters intermingled, problems began to arise. Until 1983, the registry
was open to any horse that would foxtrot under saddle. Today, more than 89’000
Foxtrotters are registered in the
MFTHBA, in Ava, Mo, from the US, Canada, Israel, Europe and a few from
Australia and New Zealand.
Since 1959, The World Championship/ The Celebration takes place every year in
Ava, Mo in the first week of September.
History of the Missouri Fox Trotting Horse
in Europe
The first Foxtrotters in Germany were presented to the public during the
Hypologica in 1992. The next event was the Equitana in Essen in 1993. The first
Foxtrotters in Europe were imported by the Queen of England in the mid-50s.
History refers to them as being Palominos. Starting with the Equitana the
number of Foxtrotters has increased steadily, especially in Germany and
Austria. Even though the Foxtrotter has become more and more attractive with
pleasure riders, there are still only some over 650 (2010) horses in Europe. In
addition to Germany, Austria and Switzerland there is a small population in
France, Czech
Republic and Spain. Few you see also in
Italy, Norway, Denmark and Sweden.
1996, the first European Championship was started and took place in a biannual
mode until 2004. The First European Championship was started in Traunreut,
Germany from August 02 -04, 1996. More than 40 horses from Germany, Austria and
Switzerland competed in 9 trials with more than 100 classes.
Since then Breeders started in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
2010 the
European Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Association (EMFTHA e.V.) started to work
together with the Free University of Berlin, to establish the criterion for the
European Stud Book of the Missouri Foxtrotter, to maintain and protect the
Standard of the Breed, its characteristics and qualities, and to make sure that
just horses with the best genetic disposition will be used for breeding high
quality, by undergoing Breed Suitability Tests.
Indication of numbers as per Jan 2010