The McCurdy Plantation Horse Breed was developed by the McCurdy family of Lowndesboro, Lowndes County, Alabama, in the late 1800's and the early 1900's. The McCurdy family were plantation owners, and needed well-gaited, durable horses to oversee and work the land. When the Tennessee Walking Horse Registry was established in the early 1930's, the McCurdy family registered their own horses as Tennessee Walking Horses (indeed, several McCurdy-bred horses are in the original Foundation registry of the Tennessee Walking Horse). Over time, as their reputation and prominence grew, others began breeding their stock to McCurdy family horses. Thus developed in Lowndes County and throughout Central Alabama, a breed known simply as the McCurdys, or McCurdy Walkers.