Impression Evergreen

Quarter Horse The American Quarter Horse, sometimes described in more elaborate terms as the famous and celebrated Colonial Quarter Pather, was first bred during the early 1600s in Virginia. The first colonists crossed the imported English Thoroughbred with assorted native horses that descended from Spain and were brought to what is now the Southeastern United States by the Conquistadors. This new breed was small, tough and quick. They were recognized as a versatile work horse during the week and an explosive racehorse on the weekend. The sports-crazy English settlers raced their horses over quarter-mile stretches run through the brush, plantations and villages. Local entrants often triumphed, with some sprinters being clocked at up to 55mph. For this reason the animal became known as the Quarter Horse. In the 19th century, pioneers heading west began crossbreeding the Colonial Quarter Horse with the wild mustangs of the Great Plains. The resulting new breed had an innate "...

Horse My parents have a small ranch in Western Nebraska where they raise and train horses. This is a picture of an Appaloosa called Lakota. My dad is an authority on Native American Horsemanship and chose the name to honor the extraordinary riders from the Buffalo Nation . By age four Sioux children had mastered riding and how to stand on a horse's bare back. As they grew stronger, the youngsters were taught to shoot arrows and practiced hitting targets from horseback. Mastering such skills became invaluable to the horsemanship required to survive in later years. The Lakota Sioux were a nomadic tribe of plains Indians who relied almost completely on the bison herds to obtain the necessities of life. In 1823 Prince Frederick of Wurtemberg witnessed the hazardous Indian technique for hunting buffalo and was dully impressed: "The Indians are extremely bold and daring riders. This is shown especially in their hunting of the buffalo. In this dangerous work it is often hard...