I've seen quite a few people ask the question "what are the best bloodline for a trail horse?" Everyone has an opinion and a much beloved horse who came from a famous bloodline. However, this is a complicated question. First, let's look at the traits that make a great trail horse: Smooth Gait, Solid Mind and Sound Body.

Smooth Gait

The ideal trail horse is one who naturally stays in the middle range of the gait spectrum. I have shared my favorite gait diagram to the right to help illustrate it. The very best gaited horses I've ever known could do the ENTIRE scale at liberty. While that may sound crazy, a horse that has that kind of range is neither tied into a hard pace nor a hard trot and usually naturally falls into the middle spectrum easily with little effort from its rider. 

The middle three spectrums are where you ideally want to be as a trailrider: foxtrot, runningwalk, rack. Honestly, a stepping pace isn't uncomfortable to ride either, and about 50% of the gaited horses I've seen being called "smooth gaited trail horses" described as doing a running walk or rack are actually doing a stepping pace, but the rider doesn't realize it.

If you like a little more speed, you want to look at a horse with a running walk, rack or saddle gait. These horses often have more natural extension than the more diagnonal horses and cover more ground in fewer steps. A horse who is too tightly square will not be able to carry speed without breaking to a canter.

How does gait relate to bloodlines? In the 1960's, the "performance" (also called "padded) show ring circuit emerged looking for horses with great BIG sweeping backends, high set necks, finer boned, hotter tempered horses. They were bred to be pacier as carrying the heavy package would change the hard pace into what looked like a four beat gait. Horses who are successful in the performance division don't always make the best trail horses. Huge backends give you a "camel walk" at a normal walk that is uncomfortably swingy for trail riders. Finer boned horses are pretty, but trail riders tend to like heavier boned, more "sturdy" mounts. And finally, if the horse paces like a freight train, it's awful to ride. You can put a heavier shoe on the front to try to even out the gait some, but it's just better practice to choose a horse who NATURALLY gaits the way you want.

Solid Mind

Let's explore that hotter temper that the performance horses were breeding for. Why would anyone want a "hot" horse, you ask? Hot horses not only perform at a higher level, expending more effort in everything that they do, but they also have a "bloom" that makes people look. If you have one that looks "ON" and one that is quietly falling asleep in the lineup, the judges are going to go for the horse with show ring presence. I personally experienced this with my own stallion, The Tennessee Stud WF (pictured at left with my then 3 year old daughter.) He performed his gaits beautifully, but my sweet boy would quietly fall asleep in the lineup while GELDINGS beside him looked more "on" than him. Long story short: fire breathing dragons look fancy in the show ring, but they're just not fun when trail riding. (Who wants to fight a dragon going down the trail? Not me.)

So which lines are known for being "hot?" The short answer is "most performance/padded horses." There are a few individuals that are usually called out for being "hot" lines Dark Spirit's Rebel (hot and stubborn), Pride's Generator, Gen's Black Gin, The Skywatch, Gen's Major General, A Jazz Man, The Pusher CG (with the notable exception of his very well mannered grandson, Out On Parole), He's Puttin' On The Ritz (super smart, but spirited), Triple Threat, The Titleist (though his famous son, Walk Time Charlie isn't known for being hot) and Chance's Ivory Mist to name a few. Does that mean that horses from those lines can't be good trail horses? Absolutely not. THe

Which lines are more "cool headed"? Blue Gold was a gentle sweetheart who produced many of the western golden lines. Midnight Sun was a gentle giant. Royal Ivory was known as a big, gentle saint. Coin's Hard Cash, Out On Parole, Lined with Cash and Jose Jose were shown padded, but were known for their gentle dispositions and offspring that excel on the trail in in field trails.

Another part of the "sound mind" equation for me is "tractability." Being stubborn and hard to work with is ABSOLUTELY inherited. Likewise, certain bloodlines tend to produce horses with a strong desire to please that makes them very easy to train. My Golden Gambler horses spoiled my horse trainer husband so much that he quit training outside horses (ok, so it was ONE of the reasons.) Gambler's son, The Tennessee Stud WF, also produces horses that just seem "born broke." So does Darrah's Handsome Traveler. Ask questions about whether the parents were easy to train. If the mare was never broke to ride, ask why. There might be a good reason (even I have good mares who need more training, but are on the backburner due to time constraints), but sometimes they aren't broke for a reason. Nothing makes me more disgusted than hearing "she was a nut, so we bred her to calm her down." No, you polluted the gene pool with her crazy. If you breed a difficult mare to a great stallion, you're still likely to get a difficult foal, even if it is "better" than the mother. Though genes are equally inherited, the mare has a lot more pull when it comes to the foal's mind as she will teach her reaction style to the foal.

A Caveat about Bloodlines

As I've said before, bloodlines alone do not make the horse. Just like humans, horses (even full siblings) inherit different genes and traits. While certain lines are proven to throw certain traits, each horse is an individual, and should be judged as such. It used to be a well kept industry secret that certain many registered horses weren't who their papers proclaimed them to be. Prior to DNA typing, registration papers could be wrong for a number of reasons, some honest (mistaken identity, accidental breedings, etc.) and some not (reused papers and fraud). (See the curious case of Merry Minnie!) A great horse is a great horse, no matter the pedigree. I'd take a fantastic horse with no pedigree over a mediocre horse with the world's best pedigree any day. My (albiet unpopular) opinion is that horses that exhibit the proper gaits, disposition and live up to all the original breed standards ought to still be allowed to be registered.

That said, the bloodline groups listed below are known for being solid options when looking for trail horses:

The Western Walkers

The walking horse show world  began producing horses in the beginning in the 1960s who were heavily lateral (pacey) in their way of going, hotter tempered and finer boned in order to produce sweeping backends and incredible show presence. Meanwhile, the western part of the country was focused on athletic using horses. They used their walkers to work around the ranch, so they bred for  strong and sturdy, calm dispositions, atheleticism and intelligence. They created a horse with a tighter, smooth gait that you could ride all day long without fatigue. The most famous of the western ranches is likely Calvin Miller's ranch. Other western breeders like Grace Larson of Montana(creator of the Part Walking Horse Registry), Mark and Shellie Pacovsky (Slush Creek Walkers) and Dalene and Colene Walsh (Arrows Walkers, now dissolved) to name a few. Arrows Walkers produced Blue Gold that I mentioned above. We bought his son, Golden Gambler, in 2002 and founded our trail horse breeding program with him. We now stand his son, The Tennessee Stud WF, and another Blue Gold descendant,  Darrah's Handsome Traveler.

The Foundation Horses

While the show world was focused on breeding show horses with as much backend as possible, the most popular horses got hotter, more lateral and narrower. Meanwhile, a few breeders scattered about the country were still breeding for the foundation style walkers. They bred for the original purpose of the walking horse --- a usable family mount. That meant calm dispositions, study builds and a tighter, smooth gait that you could ride all day long without fatigue. One farm well known for breeding the foundation horses was Ray Corum Stables of Bardstown,  Kentucky (Ray Corum passed in 2013 and the remainder of his herd was handled by his daughter, Donna Perkins). Another family famous for their foundation style horses was the Leon Oliver Family, which is now lead by Leon's nephew, John Wallace Oliver. His stallion, Slim's Gun Runner, is a fantastic example of what a foundation horse should be.

The Heritage Horses

The International Heritage Walking Horse Association was formed by a group of like-minded breeders  focusing on the foundation bloodlines in order to showcase their foundation type horses. The IHWHA requires video or in person gait and disposition certification and certain pedigree requirements: the horse must have at least four horses from the pre-1950's on their papers, they allow up to 2 padded horses in the lineage (1 padded horse creates a level 2, 2 padded horses creates a level 3 registration), and they insist on "color tracing" each generation back to the foundation papers. While I understand the purpose of such color tracing, I personally disagree with it as there we likely as many misregistered horses that WOULD color trace on papers as there are those who don't and there are other possible reasons why a horse would not color trace (see the case of Merry Yellow Rose.) It's a bit ironic as they tend to be heavy on the Midnight Sun horses and an old-timer once told me that Midnight Sun's dam was not who she was said to be. The rumor was that she was actually part English Carriage horse. That said, I would never deny the wonderful influence that Midnight Sun had on the walking horse breed, so I don't really care where he came from. I have noticed that some of the IHWHA horses are very tightly gaited. Some tend to be naturally more on the tight stepping pacey side of the spectrum and some so square they foxtrot. We have had several heritage horses in our breeding program, the most notable being Remembrance's Merry Snip and Shake 'Em Up, Sophie. Both have passed away, but we still have Sophie's colt by The Tennessee Stud WF: Gambler's Bourbon Cream WF.

The McCurdy Horses.

This breed registry that grew from a specific family's walking horse breeding program. During the 1860s, Lewis and W.D. McCurdy in Lowndes County, Alabama operated a farm breeding, training and racing Standardbreds. They bred a gray Tennessee Walking Horse stallion named Doctor F-79—now considered as the foundation sire of the McCurdy Plantation Horse breed—to some of the finest plantation walking mares in central Alabama. They did quite a bit of linebreeding in order to homogenize their horses (common in ALL purebred breeds) and ended up with horses who are known for their comfortable gait (sort of a low moving flatwalk/saddle gait), great stamina, and sturdy, compact frames. They tend to carry their necks level, which a bit lower than you usually see in walking horses. They are usually around 15h. They have been excelling in the field trial market and quite a few people use them to trail ride. McCurdys make an excellent outcross with western and foundation bred horses (Example: McCurdy's Excalibur.) Two of my favorite McCurdy studs are Little John Lester in Georgia (Through the Pines Walking Horses) and Jedi Master of Starlyte in Washington (Twisted Pine Tennessee Walking Horses).