196 ROCKY MOunTAIN HORSE HISTORIc – UNITED STATES – UNCOMMON height long distances without tiring. were reinforced by its geographic environment. Living in color 14.2–16 h.h. the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, these horses appearance Range of brown coat colors, flaxen had to be tough to withstand extreme winter weather, A fine head well set to a mane and tail. Solid body with no slightly arched neck of good white marks above knee or hock. often without shelter. Feed was not always in good supply, length. Shoulders have a good aptitude and the horses had to be thrifty, eating coarse grasses and slope and a deep, wide chest. A Riding, working livestock, even tree bark to survive. natural four-beat ambling gait showing, dressage, jumping, allows horse and rider to travel Western riding horse sports Although never formally documented, there is a story of a gaited colt who was brought into eastern Kentucky in the the rocky mountain horse is one of kentucky’s 1890s called the Rocky Mountain Stud Colt (of 1890). He less-well-known treasures. The breed’s early development was by all accounts a beautiful, dark chocolate brown with was little documented, but since the formation of the a flaxen mane and tail. Bred to him, the local mares Rocky Mountain Horse Association in 1986 there has been produced offspring in his likeness to which the term a sustained effort to preserve and promote it. Despite its “Rocky Mountain Horse” began to be ascribed. However, short recorded history, the Rocky Mountain Horse exhibits many horses at this time would have exhibited a natural true definitive characteristics through all its progeny. gait, and both the gaited Narragansett Pacer and the The Rocky Mountain Horse evolved in the eastern parts Canadian Pacer were then widespread. Nonetheless, it is of Kentucky at the foot of the Appalachian Mountains, possible—and has been seen in other breeds, most notably probably at the same time as the American Saddlebred the Morgan—for a single prepotent stallion to reproduce (Kentucky Saddler). This was in the days when pioneers set progeny in his own image, and the uncorroborated story of off from eastern states such as Virginia and the Carolinas the “birth” of the Rocky Mountain Horse is not perhaps as and trekked over the Appalachians in search of new land. outlandish as it sounds. These settlers needed horses that were versatile, full of The most important, and best documented, period of the stamina, and sure-footed enough to cover the treacherous breed’s development was at the hands of breeder Sam landscape smoothly and with some speed. Money was Tuttle. One of the Rocky Mountain Stud Colt’s offspring often tight, and a single horse was required to perform a had been a colt foal named Old Tobe (f. 1928), who sired multitude of tasks, from working the land to hauling the colt foal Tobe (f. 1942) on Tuttle’s farm. Tobe was much produce and carrying riders. The horses also had to have loved for his character and was sought after as a stallion an excellent temperament, one that was calm, biddable, because of the quality of foals he sired. Tuttle used him for and easily trained. It is no coincidence that the breeds of ten years while managing the trail-riding concession at the Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee—the American Natural Bridge State Park in Powell County, Kentucky. Saddlebred, the Missouri Fox Trotter, the Tennessee Tobe was the most popular trail horse there, and he was Walker, and the less widespread Rocky Mountain Horse— also used prolifically as a stallion until he was retired at age are remarkable for their gentle temperaments. thirty-four. He lived to thirty-seven, and longevity remains Like its neighbor the Saddlebred, the Rocky Mountain a predominant feature of the Rocky Mountain Horse. Tobe Horse may be traced both to Spanish stock and to the is recognized as the foundation stallion of the breed, and ubiquitous little Narragansett Pacer, which was so the five main stallions of the breed, registered in 1986 formative in the American gaited breeds. Its characteristics (when the registry opened), were all his sons. new world splendor.