My cousin says that the only horse that went over backwards on her (i.e., reared up and went backwards) was a quarter horse.

She dislikes them.

So cautionzombies is taking a breather from writing 300 Things and writing a Western! W00t!

::eyeballs ita's horsey request with suspicion::

Oh, cool. I'd thought it was Mustangs or something else that all the cowboys were riding.

Which might very well be quarter horses--I'm that ignorant.

Thanks. We'll see if I get up the courage to include a horse in any of my illos.

eta:

cautionzombies is taking a breather from writing 300 Things and writing a Western! W00t!

WHAT??? She needs to focus and finish her damned story. Why do people insist on trying to have minds of their own?

At least she's still in the right fandom?

(seriously. But. WESSSSSTEEEEERN)

ION, I realized today that Cas has an addictive personality. It all makes sense now, his fixation on Dean, his taking to drugs in the bad future.

I'm going to care so much less by the time she get back round to a story I was already cooling on, though. I was hoping to kind of plow right through it.

I realized today that Cas has an addictive personality

Today?

hush

I would definitely say that mustangs are a possibility. Cowponies are a type not a breed and back when horses were the main form of transport "grade" or non-purebred horses were the rule not the exception.

My first thought was a grade horse, ie. not a purebred. Definitely a cow pony, small, alert, and sure-footed.

small, alert, and sure-footed.

Um. You do know the Impala is a land yacht, right? Drives like a boat--a tugboat, not a cigarette boat. She's got looks and heart and legs, sure. But small--no. Quick--definitely not. Quick-cornering? Hahahahaha.

A grade horse would be fine, and more common than purebreds. The wild mustangs cowboys caught and broke to saddle were smallish and weedy, self-bred down from Spanish stock and adapted to sparse graze and harsh terrain.

Baby would translate to Fresian pretty well, but there weren't many, if any, around in the states in the 1800s. Other breeds that were popular but hella expensive were thoroughbreds and Morgans, either of which would map pretty well. Morgans are smallish, but long in the body and bred for carriage work, not riding. Thorougbreds are big, rangy, powerful, fast, and temperamental. They didn't do well in rough, rocky terrain and weren't used hardly at all as working horses in cattle country. But that's what I'd translate Baby to, if you can work out a way that a working cowboy can afford one, and keep its legs intact over the ground a cowboy rides. Grade is horse for mongrel, thus pretty cheap, and tough if not talented, and is probably going to be about your best bet.

Okay, while I'm being wildly offtopic--where's a good place to find a visual reference for the type of bridle that would be in use in the West in the 1830s? I don't think the picture is going to include the saddle.