Colorado Ranger
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The Colorado Ranger is a horse breed from the Colorado High Plains in the United States. The breed is descended from two stallions imported from Turkey to the US state of
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
in the late 1800s. These stallions were then bred to ranch horses in
Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...
and
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
, and in the early 1900s the two stallions who every registered Colorado Ranger traces to, Patches #1 and Max #2, were foaled. The breed was championed by rancher Mike Ruby, who founded the Colorado Ranger Horse Association in 1935. Original registry membership limits resulted in many Colorado Ranger horses being registered instead as
Appaloosa The Appaloosa is an American horse breed best known for its colorful spotted coat pattern. There is a wide range of body types within the breed, stemming from the influence of multiple breeds of horses throughout its history. Each horse's colo ...
s, but pedigree research is ongoing to discover additional horses who trace their ancestry back to the original stallions. By 2005, more than 6,000 Colorado Ranger horses had been registered. Colorado Rangers may be any solid
color Color (American English) or colour (British English) is the visual perceptual property deriving from the spectrum of light interacting with the photoreceptor cells of the eyes. Color categories and physical specifications of color are assoc ...
or carry leopard spotting patterns.
Pinto Pinto is a Portuguese language, Portuguese, Spanish language, Spanish, Sephardi Jews, Jewish (Sephardic), and Italian language, Italian surname. It is a high-frequency surname in all List of countries and territories where Portuguese is an officia ...
coloration and
American Paint Horse The American Paint Horse is a breed of horse that combines both the conformational characteristics of a western stock horse with a pinto spotting pattern of white and dark coat colors. Developed from a base of spotted horses with Quarter Hors ...
breeding are not allowed, nor are
draft horse A draft horse (US), draught horse (UK) or dray horse (from the Old English ''dragan'' meaning "to draw or haul"; compare Dutch ''dragen'' and German ''tragen'' meaning "to carry" and Danish ''drage'' meaning "to draw" or "to fare"), less oft ...
and
pony A pony is a type of small horse ('' Equus ferus caballus''). Depending on the context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. Compared ...
breeding. Colorado Ranger horses may be dual registered with the
Appaloosa Horse Club The Appaloosa Horse Club, located in Moscow, Idaho, is dedicated to preserving and promoting the Appaloosa breed. The state of Idaho adopted the Appaloosa as its state horse in 1975. More than 630,000 Appaloosas have been registered with the Appal ...
, and approximately 90 percent are.


Characteristics and registration

Colorado Ranger horses may be of any color except
pinto Pinto is a Portuguese language, Portuguese, Spanish language, Spanish, Sephardi Jews, Jewish (Sephardic), and Italian language, Italian surname. It is a high-frequency surname in all List of countries and territories where Portuguese is an officia ...
, and pinto or
American Paint Horse The American Paint Horse is a breed of horse that combines both the conformational characteristics of a western stock horse with a pinto spotting pattern of white and dark coat colors. Developed from a base of spotted horses with Quarter Hors ...
breeding is not allowed within five generations of any registered horse's pedigree. They stand high. The breed has a straight facial profile, long, muscular neck and deep chest. The shoulders and croup are sloping, connected by a short back. Colorado Ranger horses are still used for their original purpose as ranch horses. They are also shown, both in
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and
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disciplines, although mainly the former, and used for trail and pleasure riding. They are known for their athleticism, good disposition and abilities as stock horses. All registered Colorado Ranger Horses trace directly to one of two foundation sires in their pedigree. The first is Patches #1 and the second is Max #2, a son of another horse named Max born in 1918. Registered Colorado Rangerbreds may be bred to registered
Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...
s, American Quarter Horses,
Appaloosa The Appaloosa is an American horse breed best known for its colorful spotted coat pattern. There is a wide range of body types within the breed, stemming from the influence of multiple breeds of horses throughout its history. Each horse's colo ...
s, Arabians and AraAppaloosas, and the resulting progeny registered as purebred Colorado Rangerbreds. Horses with
draft horse A draft horse (US), draught horse (UK) or dray horse (from the Old English ''dragan'' meaning "to draw or haul"; compare Dutch ''dragen'' and German ''tragen'' meaning "to carry" and Danish ''drage'' meaning "to draw" or "to fare"), less oft ...
or
pony A pony is a type of small horse ('' Equus ferus caballus''). Depending on the context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. Compared ...
blood may not be registered. Colorado Ranger Horses may be double-registered with the
Appaloosa Horse Club The Appaloosa Horse Club, located in Moscow, Idaho, is dedicated to preserving and promoting the Appaloosa breed. The state of Idaho adopted the Appaloosa as its state horse in 1975. More than 630,000 Appaloosas have been registered with the Appal ...
, but Appaloosas may not be registered with the CRHA unless they have the proper bloodlines. Approximately 90 percent of Colorado Ranger horses are dual-registered.


History

The original foundation ancestors of the Colorado Ranger were two stallions brought to the United States and given to
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Ulysses S. Grant Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ; April 27, 1822July 23, 1885) was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Ar ...
by the Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid II in 1878. The first horse was a
gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...
Barb Barb or the BARBs or ''variation'' may refer to: People * Barb (name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or surname * Barb, a term used by fans of Nicki Minaj to refer to themselves * The Barbs, a band Places * Barb, ...
named Linden Tree, foaled in 1874. The second was a desertbred Arabian, also gray, named Leopard, foaled in 1873. The two stallions reached
Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
in 1879, after their voyage from Turkey. Upon reaching Virginia, they spent 14 years in the breeding herds of
Randolph Huntington Randolph may refer to: Places In the United States * Randolph, Alabama, an unincorporated community * Randolph, Arizona, a populated place * Randolph, California, a village merged into the city of Brea * Randolph, Illinois, an unincorporated comm ...
, a noted breeder of trotting and roadster horses. In 1896, Randolph leased Leopard and Linden Tree to a friend of Grant's, named General Colby, who used the stallions to breed a number of mares on his ranch in
Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...
. These breedings were successful at producing high-quality ranch horses, and a few years later several ranches in
Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the wes ...
collaborated to buy a group of horses, including one stallion, from the Colby Ranch. All of the mares were sired by one of the two imported sires, and the stallion, a few-spot leopard Appaloosa, was a grandson of Leopard on both sides of his pedigree. The influence of Linden Tree and Leopard on American horse breeding was such that they are now listed in the
studbook A breed registry, also known as a herdbook, studbook or register, in animal husbandry and the hobby of animal fancy, is an official list of animals within a specific breed whose parents are known. Animals are usually registered by their breeders ...
s for the
Arabian Horse Association The Arabian Horse Association (AHA) is the single national organization that is the only breed registry that registers Arabian horses in the United States. It also works with the United States Equestrian Federation to sanction horse shows and l ...
and the Jockey Club (which registers
Thoroughbred The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word ''thoroughbred'' is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are ...
s), both major breed associations in the United States.


20th century

The Colorado ranchers used the horses purchased from Colby to improve their existing ranch stock, and the progeny of these crossings became the Colorado Ranger Horse. Although leopard coloration was not originally an aim of the breeding program, many of the resulting horses bore spotted coat patterns, and breeders began to include the patterning as one of their goals. Two other stallions also became influential foundation sires of the breed. One was a Colorado-born leopard-spot colt named Max, foaled in 1918. The second was a Barb stallion named Spotte, imported from North Africa in 1918 by the owner of the W.R. Thompson Cattle Company as a wedding gift for his daughter. This stallion provided another important infusion of Barb blood, which had been diluted in the breed since Linden Tree had been imported from Turkey. Mike Ruby, a horseman from the Colorado High Plains, became interested in the breed and acquired Max and Patches, a son of the original Colby Ranch stallion. During his time breeding Colorado Ranger horses, he kept complete records of every horse that he bred, which became the initial pedigree record for the breed association. Ruby was invited to bring two stallions to the Denver Stock Show in 1934, and chose to take Leopard #3 and Fox #10. The names Colorado Rangers and Colorado Rangerbreds were coined during this show by members of the now- Colorado State University faculty, in reference to the horses having been bred on the ranges of Colorado. Although "Colorado Ranger" is the official name of the breed, the nickname of "Rangerbreds" is still commonly used. Ruby was influential in saving some of the highest-quality Ranger stock during the severe drought of the 1930s, by driving them over to better pasture in a history-making journey. When the rains returned to eastern Colorado, he again made the drive to return the horses to their original pasture. After re-establishing his herd, Ruby developed a practice of leasing groups of his Rangerbred horses to other ranchers throughout the western United States for use as breeding stock. Through this practice, Colorado Ranger horses influenced, and were in return influenced by, the Quarter Horse, Appaloosa and other western stock horse breeds. In 1935, Ruby founded the Colorado Ranger Horse Association (CRHA), and was granted a corporate charter for the association in 1938. Ruby remained president of the organization from 1935 until his death in 1942. The
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initially imposed a 50-member limit, and many Ranger horses, whose breeders were not allowed to become members, were instead registered with the
Appaloosa Horse Club The Appaloosa Horse Club, located in Moscow, Idaho, is dedicated to preserving and promoting the Appaloosa breed. The state of Idaho adopted the Appaloosa as its state horse in 1975. More than 630,000 Appaloosas have been registered with the Appal ...
. The member limit was lifted in 1964, and since then pedigree research has continued to find and register horses with Ranger breeding that are un-registered or registered as Appaloosas. During the 1980s, some
Lusitano The Lusitano, also known as the Pure Blood Lusitano or PSL (''Puro Sangue Lusitano''), is a Portuguese horse breed. Horses were known to be present on the Iberian Peninsula as far back as 20,000 BC, and by 800 BC the region was renowned fo ...
blood was allowed into the breed, but this practice has been discontinued. The CRHA states that up to 1 in 8 registered Appaloosas may have Colorado Ranger blood, and as such be eligible for registry with the CRHA. As of 2005, there were more than 6,000 horses registered with the CRHA, with between 100 and 125 new horses registered annually. While originally bred in the western US, today many Colorado Rangers are found in the midwest and eastern parts of the country, including the states of
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,
Ohio Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
and
Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. They are also found in Canada, where there is at least one large breeding farm.


References


External links


Colorado Ranger Horse Association
{{short description, American horse breed Horse breeds originating in the United States Horse breed registries Horse breeds