When roads improved As the United States entered the motorized transportation age and new means of travel were created, gaited horse populations in the United States started to decline as the horse lost its position as a necessity of daily existence. One exception was the less-developed area of the Appalachian Mountains where gaited horses were still necessary for travel where there were no roads, and so breeding continued and several early breeders were determined to maintain records on the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse because the unique, surefooted, four-beat gait was still essential for getting around the rugged mountain terrain where no other vehicles could traverse.
The exact origins of the Mountain horses are sheer speculation, but the Narragansett Pacer, Spanish Jennet, Mountain Pleasure Horse, and ambling Galloways are all ancestors of the modern Kentucky Mountain Saddle horse. Old Saddlebred stock and Tennessee Walking Horse bloodlines were also used. These breeds were well known for their comfortable gaits and willing attitudes which were essential for spending long hours in the saddle when the horse was the primary mode of transportation.
The traditional belief is that around 1890, a family on their way back to Virginia brought a young, gaited colt with them that was the foundation to a line of horses that has been treasured in the area ever since. He was called ‘the Rocky Mountain Horse’ by the local Appalachian people because of the area he had come from. Little is known about this foundation stallion, but the oral history indicates that he was chocolate-colored with a flaxen mane and tail, and that he possessed a superior gait. That stallion was instrumental in the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse breed, and sired two influential sons that settled in Estill and Clark Counties in Kentucky.
In Spout Springs, Kentucky, Sam Tuttle purchased a mare in 1918, Lucy, and bred her to one of the descendants of the original chocolate stallion. The mare was eventually bred to the Hinz Stud, located at Hinz Farm, and the resulting foal was Tobe. Mr. Tuttle tapped into the Mountain Horse Heritage by crossing the native Mountain Pleasure Horse stock with Tobe. Tobe was the sire of Old Tobe, his favorite stallion, and was also his primary breeding stallion and sired foals until the age of 34, and lived to age 37. He had the perfect sure-footed gait and a calm, gentle temperament and was the one that carried the young, the old, or the unsure over the mountain trails in Natural Bridge State Park for 10 years without faltering, even though he was a breeding stallion. Everyone who rode the stallion fell in love with him and his offspring were always in demand. He passed on his gait, disposition, and other great qualities to his offspring but one outstanding trait passed on was longevity, and many of his offspring are still breeding in their late twenties and early thirties. It has also been said that his offspring followed in his perfectly-timed footsteps.
Even through the hard times of the Depression and World War II years, Sam Tuttle kept a sizable herd of thirty to forty horses on his farm. In the 1950s, when the horse populations in general were rapidly declining due to tractors and farm machinery available, breeders still bought their mares to Old Tobe from several different states and he was always in demand for stud service.
