Tennessee Walking Horse
As its name implies, this horse breed is known for its distinctive walk and originated in the state of Tennessee.
Kingdom - Animalia
Phylum - Chordata
Class - Mammalia
Order - Perissodactyla
Family - Equidae
Genus - Equus
Species & Subspecies – E. ferus caballus
Common Names – Tennessee Walking Horse, Tennessee Walker
The Tennessee Walking Horse usually has a calm and docile demeanor. Their most noteworthy feature is their unique running-walk, or ambling gait, with its exaggerated movements.
Tennessee Walkers are tall in height, measuring over five and a half feet tall at the shoulders. They have long necks and muscular hindquarters. Their legs can sometimes be more exaggerated and angular than other horse breeds, which is a characteristic designed to enhanced the horse’s trademark walking gait.
They can come in any solid horse coloration, and are also seen in pinto color patterns (white with patches of color).
The origin of the Tennessee Walking Horse stems from crossing two breeds of Pacer horse – The Narragansett Pacer and the Canadian Pacer – and Spanish Mustangs, which began in the late 1700s. The Pacers originally came from Kentucky, and the Mustangs came from Texas. When these breeds were combined in Tennessee, they served as general use horses with a variety of purposes, including riding, pulling carts, and horse racing.
The unique walking style of these horses made them useful in the rocky terrain of Tennessee’s limestone pastures.
Today the Tennessee Walking Horse is used as a show horse, and as a riding horse. The horse is popular in television and film, notably serving as Silver, the horse of the Lone Ranger, and Trigger Jr., the horse of Roy Rogers that succeeded the original Trigger.
References
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tennessee_Walking_Horse
Safari Ltd Tennessee Walking Horse Toys