Many Colorado
Ranger Horses exhibit the same characteristics as the Appaloosa,
(spotted coat, mottled skin, white sclera), but they also have solid
colors.
The breed traces its origin back to 1878. During a World
Tour, General U. S. Grant became friends with Sultan Hamid of Turkey,
who gave him two horses: a desert Arabian named Leopard and a
Barb named Linden Tree.
The two horses were taken to Virginia, where Randolph
Huntington used them as foundation sires in a new breed of
light-harness horse, however, with the advent of the horseless
carriage the breeding project was discontinued. In their senior
years, Leopard and Linden went west where they spent a season in
Nebraska and sired foals, some spotted or colored, from the native
mares of the Colby Ranch. These horses drew the attention of Western
breeders for their overall quality and attractive colors. A.C.
Whipple, of Kit Carson County in Colorado, obtained a band of
broodmares from the Colby Ranch, all sired by either Linden Tree or
Leopard. In addition, a black-eared white stallion named Tony, who
was double bred to Leopard, was used as the herd stallion. In the
early 20th Century, Mike Ruby, of the Lazy J Bar Ranch, bought one
of Tony's sons, a stallion named Patches and Max, son of Waldron
Leopard. He used these stallions as the foundation sires of the new
breed, in which unusual coloring was seen more and more frequently.
Today it is known as the Colorado Ranger Horse. |
