About AQHA - Breed Information
History of the Australian Quarter Horse

"The world’s most versatile horse" is how the Quarter Horse is known today.

Founded from Arab, Barb and Turk breeds shipped to America by Spanish explorers and traders. Selected stallions from these original herds were then crossed with mares which arrived from England in 1611. This cross produced a compact. heavily muscled horse which could run short distances faster than any other horse.

As the country grew and more and more Englishmen arrived, they soon replaced quarter mile racing with traditional longer distance races which were not particularly suited to the stocky Quarter Horse and from his start in racing in colonial America the Quarter Horse began its change from sporting horse to working horse.

With the westward movement of the pioneers also went the Quarter Horse and in the 1800's vast cattle ranches began stretching across the plains and it was there the breed established its reputation. The Quarter Horse proved to have cow sense - a natural ability to judge the actions of cattle making him the greatest cattle roundup and trail driving horse in history.

The approach of the 1900's brought the breeds reputation as a ranch horse to its peak  but with this also came technological changes and settlement of western states causing a decline in the number and size of massive cattle ranches. Railways stretched further West providing transportation of cattle to market and eliminating the need for long distance cattle drives while other advancements permitted cutbacks in the number of employees and horses needed for cattle activities.

With a number of ranchers becoming concerned that the Quarter Horse breed might not survive it was decided that something should be done and in 1939 at the South western Exposition and Fat Stock Show in Fort Worth. Texas a handful of breeders met to lay the groundwork for an organisation to represent and preserve the Quarter Horse.

One year later, on 15 March 1940, representatives from several states and the Republic of Mexico met in Fort Worth to formally establish a registry known as the American Quarter Horse Association. Eight hundred shares of stock were sold at $10 a share to finance operations. Home for the first Quarter Horse office was College Station. Texas. at the home of Robert Denhardt. first secretary of the AQHA - eventually the office was moved to Fort Worth and in 1946 to Amarillo Texas.

The founders of the Quarter Horse Association determined that the Grand Champion Stallion at the 1941 Southwestern Exposition and Fat Stock Show in Fort Worth would receive number I in the registry. Top honours were captured by the King Ranch owned "Wimpy", of Kingsville Texas. Sired by Solis and out of the mare Panda, his bloodlines trace back to Old Sorrel. Hickory Bill and Peter McCue, three of the most famed foundation sires of the modern Quarter Horse. Foaled in 1935 on the King Ranch. Wimpy I became one of the worlds most noted Quarter Horses, he died in 1959 just four years after the first Quarter Horses arrived in Australia.

The late Mr Samuel Hordern and King Ranch Australia brought the first four Quarter Horses to Australia in 1954. These four stallions were Jackeroo. Vaquero, Mescal and Gold Standard. Vaquero and Jackeroo went to stud in Warwick, Queensland while Mescal went to a stud at Bowral. N .S. W. Unfortunately Gold Standard who had been sent to a property in Clermont, Queensland died before the formation of the Australian Quarter Horse Association so his particulars do not appear in the Stud Book.

The original importers were pleased with their Quarter Horses and so in 1961 a further eleven horses were brought out. This shipment consisted of three stallions and eight mares. Again in 1963 fifteen more Quarter Horses arrived. This consignment had five stallions and ten mares variously owned by King Ranch, Sir Rupert Clarke, and Mrs S.B. Myer. Another prominent horse to arrive in 1963 was "Hoss Pistol" imported by Billy Faint unbeknownst to many people for a long time.

Between 1961 and 1964 a number of importers and breeders of Quarter Horses met ;informally under the Chairmanship of Mr Peter Baillieu. The result of the meetings was the formation of the Australian Quarter Horse Association in 1964.

The first office was set up at King Ranch in Bowral. It was then moved in 1970 to Sussex Street Sydney to an office owned by Sam Horden and run by Jack Reilly. North Sydney was the next location to be taken up in 1972 while 1974 saw the office move, once again, to Crows Nest and then to Neutral Bay in 1976 the present location in Tamworth was established in 1987.

With interest in Quarter Horses increasing rapidly in 1965 and 1966 a partnership of Messrs. Greenup, Douglas and Bassingthwaighte imported one stallion while Denton and Louise Hughes brought in two more stallions. Early in 1967 King Ranch and Joyce and Joyce imported a further fourteen head consisting of five stallions and nine mares. While later in the same year, Clover Leaf Stud brought out the largest single consignment of  , Quarter Horses - ten stallions and nineteen mares.

The expense involved in importing Quarter Horses to Australia (because of the necessity  I for them to spend a six months quarantine period in the United Kingdom) had restricted their availability for sale, but the first purebred offered for auction, Jackeroo, sold for $6,000 in 1961 and was subsequently resold again in 1967 for $5.000.

In 1966 the purebred Quarter Horse, Pronto Mio Q4. realised $11,550 and is the first stallion of the breed to stand as a sire in Western Australia. These Sales were all of imported horses, while the first Australian-bred purebred Quarter Horse stallion sold at auction in 1967, Quarter Master, realised $10,000.

The aim of the AQHA is to further the Quarter Horse breed in Australia while maintaining the quality of Quarter Horse progeny. Following the example of the parent body in the United States, the AQHA instituted an up-grading program and rigid inspection and classification of all Quarter Horse progeny. The classification system was phased out from 1979 as it was decided that the crossing of any already registered stock would produce an animal eligible to be included in the Stud Book without prior inspection.

Photo: Expressions Photography