Mountain Horses - Rocky Mountain Horses and Kentucky Mountain Horses - are people horses perfect for trail riding. If you doubt this, just ask Mike and Kathy Hartong of Cedar Grove Farm in rural Peacham, Vermont.
"On summer evenings, we sit out on our stone patio, and within minutes, our horses are lined up at the fence," Mike says with a chuckle. "It's uncanny; as if they want to listen to, or be a part of our conversation. Even the babies just want to be where we are. Mountain Horses are the truly the Golden Retrievers of the equine world."
The Hartongs, who own 14 Mountain Horses, were initially attracted to the horses' mellow temperaments, but soon discovered that the breed offered so much more for the avid trail enthusiast: a naturally smooth gait, intelligence and calm in challenging situations, and hardy constitutions that make them easy keepers, even when long, frosty winters darken the Northeast Kingdom.
Earlier in the year, when fall foliage ripens into lush reds and oranges, the Hartongs often host as many as 20 friends and their Mountain Horses at Cedar Grove Farm. They spend crisp autumn days exploring more than 30 square miles of trails around the charming village that Yankee magazine called the best village in New England. Winter doesn't put a halt to the fun: Their Mountain Horses pull sleighs through the snow.
"I usually train youngsters myself," says Mike, a surgeon. "I handle and imprint them at birth, as the mothers watch. There's a lot of trust. It's a very gratifying experience."
Out of the national spotlight until just two decades ago, more and more trail riders are discovering the Mountain Horse. "I've had people drive six hours just to see one!" Mike says.
Humble Origins
The Rocky Mountain Horse and the Kentucky Mountain Horse share the same rich history and beginnings in the tranquil rolling hills of eastern Kentucky. According to legend, an anonymous traveler from the Rocky Mountains arrived in the area early last century. The traveler traded a handsome young colt for supplies. Bred to local horses, the colt's offspring were the beginning of the Rocky Mountain Horse breed.
The next milestone occurred 50 years later, when horseman Sam Tuttle's stallion, Tobe, and his five sons were recognized as foundation sires of the modern-day Rocky Mountain Horse. Strong-built, with a distinct, four-beat gait, the horses became essential to Appalachian farms.
The strength and versatility of these horses became part of local legend, but remained an eastern Kentucky secret until 1986, when the Rocky Mountain Horse Association was formed in Mount Olivet, Kentucky, to maintain and promote the breed.
Then, in 1989, Robert Robinson Jr. formed the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association, based in Lexington, Kentucky, to document and preserve the ancestry and rich heritage of the Mountain Saddle Horse.
"Junior Robinson didn't fully buy into the Old Tobe theory," notes Dave Stefanic, today the owner of the for-profit KMSHA registry and of Classic Farm in Georgetown, Kentucky. "He believed there was an existing herd of gaited horses in central Kentucky dating back to the 1890s, and that Old Tobe was just one of several foundation stallions of the Kentucky Mountain breed."
