Triple S Mountain Horse Ranch, Rocky Mountain Gaited Horses, Eagle Point, Oregon and in Kentucky, Morgan Ranch

We became interested in the smooth ride of gaited horses after owning other breeds for some time. In looking for a gaited breed with some of the steadiness and versatility required in our ranch environment, we finally discovered the intelligence and athletic ability of Kentucky's Mountain Horses. We became addicted to their people-loving personality, which is inquisitive, playful and wanting to please. They are highly intelligent and sensitive, while at the same time being a very sensible, "thinking" horse that is at the most calm and laid-back end of the spectrum for gaited breeds. These qualities make them a delight to train and handle.

In 1995 we purchased our first Mountain Horse show prospect, Rockin' Country Sunday, shown here after becoming the 1996 RMHA High Point Open Two Year Old:

We are often asked, what is a Mountain Horse? Were they made up of other breeds? The horse comes from the Appalachian Mountains of Eastern Kentucky, where they have been a distinct genetic strain for well over 100 years. In Colonial times, carts and carriages were pulled by heavier trotting breeds, but people of means kept gaited horses strictly for riding - which is why they were known as "Saddle horses." With the advent of better roads and trains, gaited horses became obsolete as the main means of personal transportation, but they survived where carriages and trains did not go for many years - the Appalachian hills. From this stock all of our American gaited breeds were derived - the American Saddlebred, the pacing Standardbred, the Tennessee Walker and the American Fox Trotter. One group of these horses was sometimes known as Rocky Mountain Horses. They were all-around horses that worked on the farm as well as being driven, ridden and taken to weekend shows. They were locally bred and prized, but were not protected by a registry until 1986, when it was feared that they were going to die out as a separate strain.

Since 1986, several registries have formed for basically the same breed of horse. Our Triple S horses are often double and triple registered with the Rocky Mountain Horse Association, the Mountain Pleasure Horse Association, the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association**, as well as our "unifying" registry, the American Gaited Mountain Horse Association. For simplicity, we refer to all the Mountain Horse breeds here as "Mountain Horses."

** KMSHA registers a number of breeds of gaited horses, as well as stock of unknown origin. If you are looking for Mountain Horse qualities and the horse you are considering has only KMSHA papers, you will need to check the lineage of the individual on the papers, and also check to make sure the lineage has been DNA parentage verified, as the registry does not otherwise check the ancestry as represented.

Our aim is to introduce people in the West to the best the Mountain Horse breeds have to offer. For some years, we have done this through a West Coast breeding, training and sales operation. We are now limiting breeding to a few top mares we have in Kentucky, and are focusing more on exhibition, recreational riding and sharing our knowledge of these horses with our website and clinics. Do look around the website for more helpful information! We will be adding more from time to time.

If you are new to the breed, you should be aware that there is a wide variation in the quality and type of the stock registered as Mountain Horses, due to the youth of the registries and the need to ensure that going forward we will maintain adequate genetic diversity. But as with many breeds, the top quality horses are just getting better and better. At Triple S, we have spent years acquiring a carefully selected group of the highest quality and true "Mountain Horse" type. (See our Breeding Philosophy page). We continue to stand our quadruple-registered, three time International Grand Champion stallion Choco Dock at Van Bert Farms in Kentucky, as well as the beautiful black Iron Man stallion, Cast In Iron. So check out our Our Stallions, Sales Page and other pages on our site for more information and details on these wonderful horses!

We Discover Mountain Horses