Missouri Foxtrotter

Missouri Fox Trotter

The Missouri Fox Trotter is one of the oldest American breeds of horses and was bred in the 1820s in the area of the Ozark Plateau in the U.S. states of Arkansas and Missouri.

Background information on the evaluation and breeding horses can be found at: exterior, interior and horse breeding.

Exterior

  • Ideally be between 1.40 m and 1.60 m
  • Should be able to carry a lot of weight
  • Standing straight, awake and alert
  • The neck should be well proportioned to the body
  • Fine, clean and smartly shaped head, with small, erect standing ears
  • The eyes are to be large and clear with a tapered mouth
  • The chest should be deep and full, as are the edges
  • Shoulders should be well muscled and angulated clean
  • Legs well muscled and well formed
  • Foot should be strong and in proper proportion to the size of the horse

Gaits

The Missouri Fox Trotter has more than the normal horse gaits:

Breeding history

The horse is bred specifically then, the pace of the Foxtrot, that is, the horse goes forward step and trots back to exercise. The gait is very safe and relatively well prevents both early fatigue of the horse and that movements are transmitted to the rider.

They are especially in endurance performance and off-road advantage, which is why the Missouri Fox Trotter are now also used by the Forest rangers of the U.S. and are very popular with the Amish.

There are 87,000 registered horses in the race, most of whom are in the U.S., a few in Canada, 450 in Europe, of which 320 live in Germany (as of January 2006).

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