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Re: [RC] Breeds in the AERC records - CowgirgoofI can tell you about the Moyle horses, as I've had four in the past twenty-two years...The Moyle family raises their horses in southwestern Idaho near a town called Weiser. They own approximately 22,000 acres of land, and the horses are range bred and raised. Rex Moyle (the breed's founder) claimed that his horses are of Spanish and Russian descent, and were the type of horses the Mormons settled Utah and Idaho with. Rex grew up in Alpine Utah, and moved to Idaho in the 1930's. Their family's tap root mare was a Mormon messenger horse who was pregnant and gave out at Rex's grandfather's door. That mare, (named "Hanson" after Rex's grandpa), produced numerous colts for the family, and those are the type of horses Rex grew up with. He also knew that a renowned Mormon named Rockwell had cut the fence and turned hundreds of Mormon horses loose in the hills around Salt Lake City and Idaho to keep them out of the hands of the U.S Calvary. He was able to round up some of these type of horses in the 30's and 40's to cross with his own horses. What came of these crosses are a rugged, good boned, hardy animal that somehow are just different from other breeds of horses. They are mainly bay or buckskin, have an average height between 14.3 and 16 hands, and are tough as nails. Rex did studies on his horses by comparing necropsies with other breeds. He claimed that his type of horse had as much as 54% red muscle mass as opposed to 48% in most of the quarter and thoroughbred types he necropsied. Moyles have short backs and large black flinty hooves. Although they are not speed horses per say, Marge Moyle (Rex's wife), rode Moyle Hawk to one of the first 5000 miles in five years in AERC's records. Many of those were one-day 100's and 5-day pony express rides of 250 miles. The Moyle breed has declined considerably on the circuit since Rex's death in 1993, but the family still raises them and offers them for sale occasionally. Many of them retain a touch of wildness in them similar to mustangs, and it takes a certain personality to understand them and their psyche. If you have further questions about them, I'd love to answer them if I can. Becky Siler
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