I second looking at reining and cutting quarter horse lines for dressage. I do low level dressage with my Quarter Horse mare. She easily schools First level and could have gone a lot further up the levels but was limited by my abilities and desires. Her bloodlines include Smart Chic Olena (grand sire) and Reminic through her mom’s lines. She is 14.2, extremely athletic and light on her feet (not a tank by any means). She is also a sweetheart and has a great, sensible brain.
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My QH mare says, “Excuse me. While my appetite and predilection for apples might lead me to become a tank if permitted by my mean, controlling mommy, I am actually rather svelte and much more like a Corvette than a tank.”
She is Topsail Whiz, Hollywood Jac and Smart Little Peppy lines. Those horses were bred to be athletic and be able to move. In searching for a dressage prospect, my advice would be to stay away from the contemporary western pleasure bloodlines. They will be the ones typically built more stout and less likely to be built uphill.
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I am a big fan of the High Rolling Roany and Mr. Pete Oswald line. I have a yearling filly that goes back to him a few times and am looking forward to riding her when she’s old enough. They usually mature bigger, 15.2 -16 and have some performance to them. Big boned ranch horses with super brains.
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She’s just lovey!
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One of our ranch mares was a daughter of Poco Dell, athletic and very well minded smart mare, that could have been a lower level dressage prospect:
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I’ve never heard of either of those lines, though I haven’t been paying a lot of attention to QH breeding the last few years. What are they bred to be?
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She’s lovely! my mare has Hollywood Jac in her lines as well.
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They’re both old school ranching lines from Eastern Montana and North Dakota. High Rolling Roany goes back to Driftwood and Hancock. Oswald is really unique type. He’s known for being extremely tough and very versatile. They have made really really great ranching horses, and they don’t seem to get hot when working. I gathered pairs on a huge section with my friend and she was on a 3/4 brother to my filly, he was at the time 9 I think. We went 14 miles looking for these sneaky gals and her gelding stayed the same level of calm the whole time, and didn’t run out of steam. We found them and brought them back to the corral and she needed to rope 2 of the bull calves to castrate and then split calves from cows, turn the cows back out and trailer the calves to the ranchers house. My gelding did great but hasn’t worked cows that much so I let him stand at the trailer and I worked on foot, but my friend stayed on her gelding and sorted them out. This might be a little western, but most people tie their horse by the reins to the pipe fence to stand. And with bawling calves, her horse basically took a nap with all the chaos around him when he was tied.
They tend to be on the bigger side, and really rugged. They tend to have minimal white and a lot of bay and roan for color. So far with my filly she’s definitely got the tough part, and the quiet part. But very sweet natured.
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I appreciate the positive comments. It took me a while to find “Pepsi.” I wanted a solid horse for ranch riding competition and I looked at a lot of horses. When I saw her extended trot and felt how supple she wanted to be laterally, I fell in love. She can be a little on the toasty side, but that keeps life interesting!
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She is very classy mare, has a beautiful head.
Bet judges look at her with admiration.
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I knew a rather inbred Hancock QH for years who was super quirky but very uphill and energetic. I would have loved to train him in dressage. I think he would have done very well with the routine in the sandbox. I think. He did once try to jump out of the three board fence surrounding the arena under his trainer owner… Other than that, I think I would have loved to ride/train him.
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What a lovely picture of a forward moving horse who is very much stepping under herself to move in a very uphill manner! Kudos to you! I agree, stay away from western pleasure lines. Go for more athletic lines.
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I have seen some very, very nice QH’s in MT and se OR. Tall-ish with good bone and a full body, move big and loose. I went with a friend to look at some geldings in Paisley, OR. The mare they had was out of her price range but she tried several geldings and bought one. He has such a good attitude and I think he could keep up with the tb’s in the field. He is pure gold. I don’t know his breeding.
The ranch she got him from referred to their horses as “boggy”.
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Wonder what that term means to us outsiders?
I googled but didn’t find any answers.
Found it- " muscular, stout" or
In the WB world " good bone".
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Thank you 
We hadn’t heard that term before but it definitely describes the horses they breed.
Funny, the first time I asked google- nothing, but wrong answers but an hour or so later I asked again. This time Google
AI had done it’s homework and provided a good answer.
That’s a bit scary!
A friend of mine, who does something involving cows, went to look at a “nice, soggy mare.”. I was like, is this a desirable characteristic? Do we want her to be soggy? Does she sweat a lot? Did she just have a bath?
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Soggy would be like boggy I imagine, though I have never heard of a QH referred to as boggy before, more familiar with soggy. A solid good sized horse with lots of muscle.
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