Grullo Quarter Horse
A Grullo Quarter Horse is the most popular horse breed in America today. These horses are suited for a variety of equestrian events: racing, dressage, reining, cutting, barrel racing, roping, gymkhana and others. Many stock horse events though open to all breeds, are dominated by the Quarter Horse. Purebred horses are very artistic and excel in shows. Innate cow sense of the American Quarter Horse makes it very valuable for cattle work and rodeo events. Intelligence and obedience of these horses make them good first-time mounts. American Quarter Horses are widely used for pleasure riding and in mounted police units.
A purebred Grullo Quarter Horse is nowadays popular all over the world. Large numbers of Quarter Horses are exported to Europe, Asia, and Australia. Many countries that don’t have traditional horse industries, like Israel and Japan, hold competitions and shows for which they buy and breed American Quarter Horses.
Modern Quarter Horses are subdivided into two main body types: the Racing (or Hunter) type and the Stock type. Horses of the Racing type are tall, refined and smooth muscled, resembling the Thoroughbred Horse. Stock type Quarter Horses are well-muscled, with very powerful hindquarters. Quarter Horses of the Halter type are not numerous, probably because their appearance is very exaggerated. They have a small, refined head and very heavy, well-muscled body. A Haler type Grullo Quarter Horse weigh over 1200 pounds with a height 15.2-16 hands at the withers. Extreme muscle mass that was trendy several decades ago was very bad for the horse’ health and most breeders have quit breeding massive Quarter Horses.
Since the Quarter Horse is actually a mixture of many breeds and the purity of the breed was not preserved till the 1940s, all coat colors and patterns are acceptable in the breed. Spotted and pinto horses that were refused participating in shows, are accepted as purebreds if DNA testing verifies their parentage. Sorrel is the most common color in Quarter Horses; other widely spread colors are chestnut, bay, black, palomino, buckskin, gray, dun, red dun, bay roan, blue roan, red roan, cremello, and perlino. A Grullo Quarter Horse is often referred to as a blue dun.
