Cowboy Cadillac

Many horse breeds have obvious exterior features by which they are easily recognized. The Arabian has a "pikey" head profile, the Friesian has a luxurious mane, tail and brushes on the legs, the Indian Marwari has funny twisted ears. When you see что такое SQL a quietly standing Missouri Foxtrotter, you can hardly determine his breed identity. Until he moves and hurries somewhere with his trademark trot.

The Missouri Foxtrotter's homeland, as you can guess from the name, is the United States, Missouri. After Missouri received statehood in 1821, the first settlers - mostly natives of Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia - arrived on its territory, bringing with them their best riding horses. Because the animals were not adapted to the new environment and were not well suited for safe and comfortable rides in the mountains, a long period of experimentation began to develop a new native breed. The main requirement was the horse's ability to carry a rider over long distances with minimum effort, both for the animal and for humans. Simply put - reliability and convenience. To that end, planter horses from the South were crossed with Arabian horses and Morgans, and later they were also added with the blood of American riding horses and Tennessee Walkers. The "easy-allure" horses imported to the American coast during the colonial era also left their mark on the newly formed breed.

To the rhythm of the foxtrot

The main feature that distinguishes the Missouri Foxtrotter from other breeds is its unique allure, known as the foxtrot or, in common parlance, the "fox trot." When moving at foxtrot the horses forelegs move at a quick pace (from the side it looks like sportive walking of people), and hind legs move at a trot, and they don't put with a distinct rhythm, like at a usual trot, but slide far under the body, stepping on the forelegs' tracks. The result is a smooth and comfortable allure, which the horse can move for a long time without feeling tired.

It should be noted that the ability to walk with front legs and trot with hind legs is inborn, but it can be developed through long-term training. Thanks to their comfortable gait and speeds of five to eight miles per hour, Missouri Foxtrotters quickly gained popularity in the United States - especially among long-distance travelers such as ranchers, farmers, doctors, and sheriffs, which even earned them the nickname "cowboy cadillac."

A Window to Europe

In 1948, fifteen people interested in the preservation of the breed founded the Missouri Foxtrotters Breed Association in Ava, Missouri. A few years later, in the mid-1950s, the first Foxtrotters were imported into Europe, immediately becoming known as the "white maned peg horses." Nevertheless, the first "official introduction" to the European public occurred only in 1992 during the German horse show Hyppologica.

In the same year the European Association of Missouri Foxtrotter was created, which became a branch of the American Association. The first specialized European Championship for the Missouri Foxtrotter was held in 1996, and in 2010 the European Foxtrotter Association began to cooperate with the Free University of Berlin. This allowed to establish criteria for the European Studbook of the Foxtrotter, designed to maintain and protect the standards of the breed, its characteristic features and qualities. Only horses that met these standards and had previously passed "suitability tests" were allowed to breed.

To date, in the U.S., Canada, Austria and Germany are registered, in total, about 52 thousand heads. In Russia, there are no stud farms and breeding farms for breeding this breed, and registered Foxtrotters can also be counted on fingers.

Exterior .

Having given the breed such a unique gait, nature, nevertheless, has not marked out these horses in any way externally: representatives of this breed have no special features, by which they can be recognized at once, as representatives of many other breeds.

The Missouri Foxtrotter has a gracefully proportioned head with a narrowed snout, a neat neck, a deep and rounded body with well-muscled shoulders and a moderately short back. The hind legs tend to be saber-like. The height at the withers ranges from 142 to 163 cm. In terms of color, Missouri Foxtrotters come in "all colors of the rainbow": bay, raven, gray, red, caraca, mace, sallow, isabella, and peg.

"Mileage" has meaning.

The Missouri Foxtrotters Association (MFTHBA) has a number of programs to promote and develop the breed, in which any owner of an Association-registered horse can participate.