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by Cheryl R Lutring
| When fine ladies and
smart gentleman of Britain used the horse as a means of transport, they did not subject
themselves to the jolt and jar of the trot. Trotting types were relegated to the be the
mounts of the poor. Even the Romans and Greeks understood the value of a good ambling
type, and referred to trotters as 'torture horses' or 'boneshakers'. The mount for those who had choice was the smooth, easy-gaited ambling types, known in the UK collectively as palfreys and latterly as Old English Amblers. These horses possessed a fine riding gait which placed each foot on the ground in rapid succession thus eliminating the jolt of the trot and the roll of the pace. As this movement was based on the walk, the horses were referred to as amblers, but their ground-covering sure-footed gait was much more rapid than the walk. As is still the case with many things British, this lovely breed was allowed to disappear totally when the improvement of the roads led to more carriages and the need for a comfortable riding mount decreased. Now totally vanished from our 'green and pleasant land' the genes of the Ambler still, fortunately, exist in the so called 'modern' breed - the American Saddlebred. |
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| The pioneers of the New World
took with them the Amblers of the Old World, and prized them for all their enviable
qualities: smooth gait, sensible attitude, trainability, and courage. The state of
Kentucky lays claim to the development of the Saddlebred, with Missouri making the point
that they took it and improved upon it. Who knows? One thing is sure, the judicious fusion
of the blood of the Ambler and the blood of the English Thoroughbred produced the finest
saddle horse imaginable.
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| Known at first merely as
the 'saddle horse' - a name that has led to confusion in many modern day equine writers -
it soon became known as the Kentucky Saddler, and then ultimately the American Saddlebred
when it was adopted as America's national breed. Formed in 1891 the registry for the breed
was the very first equine registry in America. |
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