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Re: [RC] [RC] Man o' War - D'Arcy Demianoff-ThompsonNot bad Baraba,
Wikepedia Tells Us:
In the 1600s, colonists on the eastern seaboard of what today is the United States began to cross imported English Thoroughbred horses with assorted "native" horses such as the Chickasaw horse (a breed developed by Native American people from horses descended from Spain, developed from Iberian, Arabian and Barb stock brought to what is now the Southeastern United States by the Conquistadors). One of the most famous of these early imports was Janus, a Thoroughbred who was the grandson of the Godolphin Arabian. He was foaled in 1746, and imported to colonial Virginia in 1756. The influence of Thoroughbreds like Janus contributed genes crucial to the development of the colonial "Quarter Miler," or "Quarter Mile Horse." This was a speedy working man's racer, sometimes referred to as the "Celebrated American Quarter Running Horse." The resulting horse was small, hardy, and quick, and was used as a work horse during the week and a race horse on the weekends.[3] As flat racing became popular with the colonists, the Quarter Miler gained even more popularity as a sprinter over courses that, by necessity, were shorter than the classic racecourses of England, and were often no more than a straight stretch of road or flat piece of open land. When matched against a Thoroughbred, local sprinters often won. As the Thoroughbred breed became established in America, many colonial Quarter Mile mares were included in the original American stud books, starting a long association between the Thoroughbred breed and what would later become officially known as the "Quarter Horse," named after the distance at which it excelled. D'Arcy ps: GASP - TB and Arabian foundation! LOL! I once asked the CHRB why we couldn't breed an Arabian with a QH and have it a running quarter...the answer... "we wouldn't want to MIX Arabian blood with the QH." ROFLMAO...No kidding that was the response! When I pointed out that QH already had Arabian in them she says, "you are mistaken that would NEVER happen!" I gave up!
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