Florida Cracker Horse

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Florida Cracker Horse
Florida Cracker Horse in the Paynes Prairie State Preserve
Other namesChickasaw Pony, Seminole Pony, Prairie Pony, Florida Horse, Florida Cow Pony, Grass Gut
Country of originUnited States
Traits
Distinguishing featuresSpanish-style gaited horse found in many colors
Breed standards

The Florida Cracker Horse is a

South Carolina.[2]

The Florida Cracker is a

gaited breed known for its agility and speed. The Spanish
first brought horses to Florida with their expeditions in the early 16th century; as colonial settlement progressed, they used the horses for herding cattle. These horses developed into the Florida Cracker type seen today, and continued to be used by Florida cowboys (known as "crackers") until the 1930s.

By this point, Florida Cracker Horses were superseded by American Quarter Horses, the latter of which were needed to work the larger cattle breeds brought to Florida during the Dust Bowl. As a result, the population numbers of the Florida Cracker Horse declined precipitously. Through the efforts of several private families and the Florida government, the breed was saved from extinction, but there is still concern about its low numbers. Both The Livestock Conservancy and the Equus Survival Trust consider breed endangered.

On July 1, 2008, the

Mississippi in the Southern United States
.

Characteristics

The Florida Cracker Horse is also known by a variety of other names and descriptions, including "Chickasaw pony", "Seminole pony", "Prairie pony", "Florida horse", "Florida cow pony", and "grass-gut".

chestnut are also seen.[5] Roan and pinto colors are occasionally found.[7]

Florida Crackers have straight or slightly concave profiles, strong backs and sloping

amble, in addition to the regular walk, trot, canter and gallop.[5] The single-footed ambling gait is known as the "coon rack" by some breed enthusiasts.[8]

The

North Carolina, both Spanish-style breeds from the eastern United States, but DNA testing has proven that these are separate breeds.[9]

History

An 1895 drawing by Frederic Remington of a Florida cracker cowboy, Bone Mizell (1863–1921)

Horses first arrived on the southeast North American mainland in 1521, brought by

Spanish Jennets, Sorraias, Andalusians, and other Iberian breeds. Overall, they were relatively small and had physical traits distinctive of Spanish breeds, including short backs, sloping shoulders, low set tails, and wide foreheads.[5]

The early cattle drivers, nicknamed Florida crackers and Georgia crackers, used these Spanish-ancestry horses to drive cattle (eventually known as Florida Cracker cattle).[5] The cowboys were said to have received their nickname from the distinctive cracking of their whips, though modern etymology actually traces the term to a mostly obsolete word for 'braggart' or 'loudmouth'. The name was transferred to both the horses they rode and the cattle they herded.[7] Through their primary use as stock horses, the type developed into the Florida Cracker horse, known for its speed, endurance and agility. From the mid-16th century to the 1930s, this type was the predominant horse in the southeastern United States.[5]

During the

screwworm. Cattle with this parasite needed to be treated frequently, being roped and held while the rider was on horseback. The cowboys found that the Florida Cracker horses, bred for working smaller cattle, were not able to hold the western cattle.[12] They replaced the smaller horses with American Quarter Horses. This resulted in the Florida breed almost becoming extinct.[5]

20th century

Group of three Florida Cracker Horses in the Paynes Prairie State Preserve

The breed's survival during the 20th century is owed to a few families who continued to breed the Cracker horse and kept distinct bloodlines alive.

foundation horses" and 14 of their offspring were immediately registered. These horses came mainly from four lines of Cracker bloodstock and were designated as purebreds by breed experts – partbred horses were denied entry to the registry. As of 2009, around 900 horses had been registered since the foundation of the registry.[6]

Effective July 1, 2008, the Florida House of Representatives declared the Florida Cracker Horse the official state horse.[13] As of 2009 there are three main bloodlines of Cracker stock, as well as a few smaller lines. The state of Florida still maintains two groups of Ayers-line horses in Tallahassee and Withlacoochee for breeding purposes and a display group in the Paynes Prairie Preserve. The state annually sells excess horses from all three herds, and individual breeders also send horses to the sale.[6] The Livestock Conservancy considers the breed to be at "critical" status, as part of the Colonial Spanish horse family,[14] meaning that the estimated global population of the breed is fewer than 2,000 and there are fewer than 200 registrations annually in the United States.[15] The Equus Survival Trust also considers the population to be "critical," meaning that there are between 100 and 300 active breeding mares in existence today.[16] However, breed numbers are slowly on the rise.[6]

Chickasaw horse

The original Chickasaw horse, bred by the Chickasaw Nation using horses captured from Hernando de Soto's expedition, became extinct after being used to create the Florida Cracker Horse, and having some influence on the American Quarter Horse.[17] Some sources still use the Chickasaw name to describe the Florida Crackers of today.[5][6]

The Chickasaw horse was originally bred for speed over short distances, traits found in its Florida Cracker Horse and American Quarter Horse descendants. The typical Chickasaw horse stood at about 13 hands high, described as "short and chunky, quick to action, but not distance runners...the best utility and all-rounder horses of their time".[18]

They influenced the

Virginia
.

In the 1970s, there was interest in re-creating the Chickasaw horse, using horses bearing strong resemblances to the original breed,[17] but the breed association no longer exists. The Chickasaw Horse Association Inc. listed the conformation of the Chickasaw horse as "a short head, short fine ears, wide between the eyes, short back, square blocky hips, dock set low, short neck, wide chest, high deep shoulders, strong short pasterns, and a slight bend in the hock".[18]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Conservation Priority List". The Livestock Conservancy. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  2. PMID 22221025
    . Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  3. ^ McAllister, Toni (18 September 2007). "Official designation for the Florida Cracker Horse". Horse Illustrated. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  4. ^ "Our History". Florida Cracker Trail Association. 14 October 2018. Retrieved 23 June 2023.
  5. ^
    ISBN 1-58017-613-5
    .
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-0-7603-3499-7
    .
  7. ^ a b McAllister, Toni (September 18, 2007). "Official designation for the Florida Cracker Horse". BowTie, Inc. Retrieved October 11, 2010.
  8. ISBN 1-59228-893-6.[permanent dead link
    ]
  9. ^ "Historic horse breed may not be history". SF Gate. Associated Press. April 20, 2008. Retrieved May 9, 2022.
  10. ^ "Florida Cracker Cattle and Horse Program". Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. Archived from the original on May 15, 2011. Retrieved October 9, 2010.
  11. ^ a b "Florida Cracker Horse". The Livestock Conservancy. Archived from the original on September 6, 2015. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
  12. ^ Sponenberg, D. Phillip (16 March 2011). "NORTH AMERICAN COLONIAL SPANISH HORSE UPDATE". Center for America's First Horse. Retrieved 24 June 2023.
  13. ^ "SB 230 - State Symbols/Fla. Cracker Horse/Loggerhead Turtle [RPCC]". Florida House of Representatives. Retrieved April 7, 2012.
  14. ^ "Breed Information". Conservation Priority List. The Livestock Conservancy. 2015. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
  15. ^ "Parameters of Livestock Breeds". Conservation Priority List. The Livestock Conservancy. 2015. Retrieved June 29, 2015.
  16. ^ "Equus Survival Trust Equine Conservation List" (PDF). Equus Survival Trust. Retrieved October 5, 2010.
  17. ^ a b Lemon, Holmes Willis. "Chickasaw Horse". The Chickasaw Nation. Archived from the original on December 14, 2010. Retrieved December 20, 2010.
  18. ^ a b "The Chickasaw Horse". Western Horseman. 3 February 2017. Retrieved 23 June 2023.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Florida Cracker Horse.

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