MAP 6
Colonial Quarter Running Horse
The Colonial Quarter Running Horse (CQRH), also called the Colonial Riding Horse, is the next purely American creation (24), derived from a cross of Morgan (21) with Southern horses. On this map I represent the ChoctawChickasaw (22), as well as southern Hobbies (18) and both amblergalloper (15) and trotter-galloper (23) Thoroughbreds. The CQRH is essentially a product of the South, beginning with the importation to Virginia of the ambler-galloper *Little Janus in 1759 and continuing into the first half of the 19th century largely through the influence of Sir Archy (1805 to 1833), who was born in Virginia and whose stud career, like that of *Little Janus, occurred primarily in North Carolina. *Little Janus and Sir Archy of course covered Thoroughbred mares but also many country-breds of Hobby extraction, and it is these who produced the fastest quarter-mile sprinters and who are the distaff foundation of the American Quarter Horse. Not all CQRH’s were used for racing, but thousands of those that ambled became mounts for the first wave of American pioneers pushing westward over the Appalachians to the Mississippi. Like the Morgan, these horses were good-minded, broadbacked, good-legged, strong for their size and fleet over a short distance.
The ultimate fate of the CQRH is similar to that of several other “extinct” breeds reviewed in this article: It becomes the ancestor of a new breed —and a remnant of the original type survives in rugged backcountry. CQRH females became the foundation for the American Quarter Horse, one of the two breeds which descend from it (the other is the American Saddlebred). Remnant populations of the original CQRH survive to this day in the hilly backcountry of Virginia, the Carolinas and Kentucky.
The very recently founded Rocky Mountain and Kentucky Saddler registries are attempts to preserve the CQRH into the modern era where “papers” are universally demanded by American buyers. I think the horses have the last laugh, though, because as this article shows—papers or not, these very valuable horses have been hiding out in the backwoods for over two centuries. Their recent rediscovery is a fascinating window into American history.