Mountain Pleasure

The line runs back to the gaited horses of colonial America, including the Narragansett Pacer, and forward into the famous show breeds: Mountain Pleasure blood fed the American Saddlebred and, in the early 1900s, the Tennessee Walking Horse.

The Mountain Pleasure Horse Association formed in 1989 and moved fast to fence the breed in. The stallion registry closed in 1991 at 100 stallions, the mare registry in 1992 at 400 mares, and the association was an early adopter of blood-typing, and now DNA testing, as proof of parentage for registration. Kentucky's governor recognized the breed by proclamation in 1994.

The Livestock Conservancy puts them at 14.2 to 16 hands and 900 to 1,100 pounds; the commonly published range is 14.2 to 15.2 hands. Most solid colors occur, but the one people picture is a deep golden palomino, often with white markings. The build is balanced and medium: a laid-back shoulder, an arched neck, a kind eye.

Gaited means it has natural gaits beyond the walk, trot and canter. The Mountain Pleasure has a four-beat gait whose rhythm barely changes whether the horse is moving fast or slow, and the movement stays level. Very little of it reaches the rider's seat, which is why people take these long distances and why they suit anyone who needs a smooth ride. Foals show the gait within hours of birth.

They are calm, willing, easy to train and fond of people.

The Livestock Conservancy's assessment is blunt: a good family horse, suitable for novices, with a gait that carries riders who need a smooth ride.

Families ride them, and they turn up in trail riding, obstacle competitions, drill teams and barrel racing.

The core job is the gait: a smooth horse for long hours in the saddle.

Not much feed. The Conservancy says the Appalachian hills required easy keepers, and the Mountain Pleasure Horse Association describes horses bred to survive on limited forage and tough enough for rocky ground.

No gait gear, either. The association does not allow action devices, artificial aids or harsh training methods; the four-beat gait is born in, not trained in.

The breed is critical on The Livestock Conservancy's Conservation Priority List, and the Equus Survival Trust lists it as critical too. The registries closed small, and the population has stayed small.

The genetics are the point. The Mountain Pleasure is treated as the old Appalachian gaited type surviving more or less intact, which makes the small herd more important than its numbers.

Registration runs through the Mountain Pleasure Horse Association, and parentage is proven by DNA, so ask for the papers and expect them to hold up.

Ride the horse before you bid if the gait is what you are buying. The four-beat gait is natural and foals show it early, but the way to judge a particular horse's ride is from the saddle.

The market is thin. Few are bred each year, so finding one takes time, and selling one takes the same patience.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.