Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association

horses have become a highly sought after “pleasure horse” in all of Kentucky as well as around the world, for their easy going temperament, intelligence, versatility, willingness, and most notably, a smooth, natural 4-beat gait. Many members of long-time Kentucky families remember well the stories of the many extraordinary feats that were told about these horses by their grandfathers and great grandfathers around the dinner table. In 1989, Robert Robinson, Jr., a native of Irvine, Kentucky formed the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association (KMSHA) to document and preserve the ancestry and rich heritage of the mountain saddle horse. In 2002 the Spotted Mountain Horse Association was formed, (a subsidiary of the KMSHA) to register mountain horses that had “spots” of white that were considered to much coverage for any of the existing mountain horse breeds, in order to meet their solid color standards. This Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse and the Spotted Mountain Horse breeds, each with their own distinctive characteristics and genetic DNA markers, are recognized by the University of Kentucky, Equine Parentage Testing and Genetic Research Center as their own unique breed of Horse. From its humble beginnings, and through its unwavering commitment to promote the breeds, the Kentucky Mountain Saddle Horse Association and the Spotted Mountain Horse Association are growing (collectively KMSHA) both nationally and internationally.