Rocky Mountain Horses

I really don
T know about Marchadors but I would think that unless they are an open breed that their gene pool is pretty limited too. I guess that is always the quandary, work with the genes you have in a "breed" or open it up to outside blood in the hopes of improving something.

I have a Kentucky Mountain mare, a palomino, she is very laid back, another one of those that just walks along and has all day to get to her destination regardless of what other horse is around. If you want to open her up she will go, but if you don't want it she's happy with that. Same way with my Rocky mare. She is a bit jiggy at the start but once you let her know speed is not what you want she slows right into a walk and doesn't care where she is in the line up. Every horse has their own temperament and often if you get a horse from the heart of Rocky/KMH land you will have a horse that has a go attitude. It's how they ride there and that's how they break them. You want to slow them down all you need to do is retrain them.

Too bad for the dishonest seller with the fruitcake horse. That's the type you NEVER consider for a broodmare. Every breed is going to get a fruitcake once in a while, no matter how well you keep track of your breeding operation. All you have to do is look at people. Sometimes the wires just don't cross right.

As far as head size, they come in all ranges, most of them are average horse, now the little KMH mare which has a ton of TWH in her far background is pretty petite and usually needs an Arab halter.

Face shapes in mountain horses range from Roman nose to Arab ears and straight faced with very refined bones. Large stocky horses and very fine boned horses, so I can't say that all Rockies are cut from just a few horses, too many different body styles to say they are breeding for all one color. Look around, nowadays you see a lot of champagnes, palominos, sorrels, blacks, bays, buckskins and grullo colors. Yes chocolate is the signature color, but it's not the only color they breed for anymore.

There are a limited number in the U.S. But there are 350,000 in Brazil. With the ability to import frozen semen we can prevent the sort of problems that come from an excessively narrow base.

The question of poor breeding decisions, however, is really separate from issues of narrow genetic base. The boradest base in the world won't help if the humans don't use it intelligently.

G.

I have an Isabella White Palomino Rocky Mountain named Cloud. He is 10 years old and is amazing! He has a very smooth slow and fast gait and always listens to my commands! This is my first horse and I am very satisfied with the breed

Lovely picture but the gait looks to be almost a trot. I know pictures are hard to judge. Don't they do a kind of stepping pace type of gait usually?

This was just a picture I took of him playing at liberty and having fun not of him gaiting lol their gait is very similar to a pace. When he gaits its so smooth I feel like I'm floating

My Rocky can vary his actual gait, depending on a number of factors, and he trots at libery which also has variations like a typical trot can.

Here's me riding the stallion, Rocky, last week....

that is actually the gait they do.. a trot would be the front left moving with the back right and vice versa..

We got back from washington and we bought one!! We can't bring it down until May, but when we get North Western Mountain Chocolate (Chocky for short) I will make sure to bring up so photos! Chocky is barely 14 hands high - only half a hand from one of our horses, Golley.