MISSOURI FOX-TROTTING HORSE

Missouri Fox Trotting mare with black coat. breed of horse that originated in Missouri and the Ozark Mountains region and is characterized by the fox trot gait, a broken gait that occurs when the horse walks briskly with the front feet while trotting with the back feet. Developed from light horses taken to the Ozarks by settlers, the fox-trotting horse was originally a general utility horse but now is a show and riding horse. Sorrel is the usual colour; height varies from 14 to 16 hands (56 to 64 inches, or 142 to 163 cm), and weight averages about 1,000 pounds (450 kg). The Missouri Fox Trotting Horse Breed Association was organized in 1948. See the Table of Selected Breeds of Light Horses for further information. History Before the coming of European explorers the land that was to become Missouri was the home of a diverse group of Indian tribes whose mounds and other remains dot the state. One of the tribes was called the Missouri. Exploration and settlement The recorded history of the region dates from the settlement of some French lead miners and hunters at Sainte Genevieve, on the western bank of the Mississippi, in about 1735. At some distance from its original site, Sainte Genevieve remains the oldest continuously inhabited white settlement in Missouri. Some 30 years later, Pierre Laclede, a French fur trader from New Orleans, founded St. Louis. At the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, most of the 10,000 residents of the region were French settlers from the Illinois country, but some Americans had come from Kentucky and Tennessee, which, with Virginia, were the major immediate sources of settlers in following decades.