Choctaw Horse

The Choctaw Horse is an American breed or strain of small riding horse of Colonial Spanish type. Like all Colonial Spanish horses, it derives from the horses brought to the Americas by the Conquistadores in and after the late fifteenth century and introduced in the seventeenth century into what is now the United States. As is clear from the name, the Choctaw Horse is strongly associated with the indigenous Choctaw people of America, who originally bred it in their traditional homeland in the area of modern-day Alabama and Mississippi, and continued to do so after their forced removal to the Indian Territory – modern Oklahoma – in the 1830s.[5][6][7][8]: 145 

Choctaw Horse
Conservation status
Country of originUnited States
Useriding
Traits
Height
  • 137–147 cm[4]: 440 
Colorany, very variable

It is an endangered breed and is listed – with all other Colonial Spanish breeds – by the Livestock Conservancy as 'critical'.[3] In 2009 no more than 200 horses of the Choctaw and Cherokee strains were thought to remain.[6]

History

The Choctaw Horse derives from the horses brought to the Americas by the Conquistadores in and after the late fifteenth century and introduced in the seventeenth century into what is now the United States. It was originally bred by the indigenous Choctaw people of America in their traditional homeland in the area of modern-day Alabama and Mississippi. In the 1830s, when they were forcibly removed to the Indian Territory – what would become modern Oklahoma – they took their horses with them.[5][6][7][8]: 145 

Until about 1970 there may have been some 1500 of the horses in Oklahoma, but in the next twenty years their numbers fell to little more than 50 head.[5] In the twenty-first century it is an endangered breed and its conservation status is listed, together with all other Colonial Spanish breeds, as 'critical' by the Livestock Conservancy.[3]

Some bloodlines of the extinct Chickasaw Horse are preserved in the Choctaw breed.[9]: 451 

Characteristics

Height at the withers is usually in the range 137–147 cm (13.2–14.2 h).[4]: 440 [9]: 453  Coat color is highly variable; colors include the usual bay, black, brown, chestnut and sorrel, and also buckskin, dun, and palomino as well as leopard blanket, spotted and varnish roan patterns, pinto patterns, and sabino.[9]: 453 [5] The horses often have additional gaits such as a fast running walk.[9]: 453 [5] They have particularly strong hooves.[5]

Use

It is a riding and working horse, with notable endurance.[5][6]

References
  1. Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
  2. Breed data sheet: United States of America: Horse. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed April 2023.
  3. Colonial Spanish. Pittsboro, North Carolina: The Livestock Conservancy. Archived 2i January 2023.
  4. Élise Rousseau, Yann Le Bris, Teresa Lavender Fagan (2017). Horses of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691167206.
  5. D. Phillip Sponenberg ([n.d.]). The Choctaw Horse. Durant, Oklahoma: Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma. Archived 6 March 2013.
  6. [s.n.] (Spring 2009). Ride Like the Wind. Field Notes. Poteau, Oklahoma: The Kerr Center for Sustainable Agriculture. Archived 4 July 2013.
  7. Choctaw and Cherokee Horses. Pittsboro, North Carolina: The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy. Archived 20 March 2023.
  8. Catherine Austen, Sarah Gorrie, Pippa Roome, Nicola Jane Swinney (2013).The Complete Illustrated Encyclopedia of Horses and Ponies. London: Flame Tree Publishing. ISBN 9780857758811.
  9. Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.
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