Calculating Your Horse’s Foundation Quarter Horse Percentage

The method used by Foundation Quarter Horses Association is simple. It is easy for anyone to determine their horses Foundation percentage themselves. You just need a basic working knowledge of fractions and percentages. The system is based on a single concept - Thoroughbred blood which is added into a horse’s pedigree for horses registered with AQHA in 1941 or later subtracts from that horses percentage of foundation Quarter Horse blood. It’s that simple. For an example of this system see King Fritz’s pedigree below.

For the purposes of calculating foundation blood, any horse that is AQHA registered and was foaled in 1940 or prior is 100% Foundation Quarter Horse. Repeat: All registered American Quarter Horses born in 1940 or before, are 100% Foundation. All "unknowns" or registered horses of breeds other than Thoroughbred that appear in an AQHA registered Quarters Pedigree are considered 100% Foundation. The 100% foundation allocation includes old NQHBA horses as well, though we rarely run across them.

If a Thoroughbred appears in your horse’s pedigree, that Thoroughbred’s foaling date does not matter. If he shows up as a sire or dam of a registered American Quarter Horse born in 1941 or later, that Thoroughbred will bring down that horse’s Foundation percentage.

A sire or dam contributes 50% to their offspring’s genetics. So, a horse possessing an AQHA number that was foaled in 1941 or later, which also has a Thoroughbred parent can only be a maximum of 50% foundation blood. Again: Any named Thoroughbred appearing as the sire or dam of an AQHA registered horse born in 1941 or later, WILL be counted as TB blood and will subtract from the percentage of foundation Quarter Horse blood.

To calculate any Quarter Horse’s percentage of foundation blood you would keep moving backwards in their pedigree until you arrive at a registered American Quarter Horse foaled in the year 1940 or prior (100% foundation), or a Thoroughbred (0% foundation).

King, P-234, foaled in 1932, is King Fritz’s grandsire on the top side. King was foaled eight years prior to AQHA’s creation, which makes King 100% foundation Quarter Horse.

Cricket McCue, AQHA #9262, is by Barney McCue, #4891, foaled in 1940; and out of Fanny McCue, #2458, foaled in 1939. Since both Cricket McCue’s sire and dam are registered American Quarter Horses foaled in 1940 or prior they are both 100% foundation, hence Cricket McCue is also 100% foundation.

Poco Bueno is well known as a 100% foundation horse. He is sired by King P-234, (foaled in 1932) and out of Miss Taylor, (foaled in 1933). The 1940 or prior rule comes into play here again.

Mary Jane W is by Pretty Boy who was foaled in 1928, which makes him 100% and Mary Jane W is out of an "unregistered" Waggoner mare who is also counted as 100%. This make Mary Jane W 100% foundation.

To finish off the calculation add all of the grandparents percentages together (400% would be the total figure) then divide by 4 (for the number of grandparent) and not surprisingly you end up with a 100% foundation figure for King Fritz. This may seem just too obvious, but this method will get you through some more complicated calculations. To illustrate this we can use Doc Bar’s pedigree, below.

Doc Bar’s Paternal Grandsire - Three Bars (TB), being a registered Thoroughbred, is obviously not a foundation Quarter Horse, and so Three Bars’ percentage of foundation Quarter Horse blood is zero. He contributes nothing toward the foundation percentage of any Quarter Horse. To compound this fact, Three Bars was foaled the same year AQHA was created -1940. This means that no horse tracing to Three Bars (TB) could ever be 100% foundation Quarter Horse since all of his foals were born after the critical date of 1940. Some well known Three Bars descendents are Impressive (intensively inbred to Three Bars), Doc Bar and Sugar Bars.

Doc Bar’s Paternal Granddam - Della P, AQHA #6805, was foaled in 1934, well before the 1940 cut off date, hence she is 100% foundation.

Doc Bar’s Maternal Grandsire - Texas Dandy, AQHA #2112, was foaled in 1942 so another generation behind him must be researched since we have not yet arrived at either 1940, or a Thoroughbred. He was sired by My Texas Dandy, AQHA #4900, and his dam is Streak, AQHA #612. Both the sire and dam, My Texas Dandy (1928) and Streak (1931) are registered American Quarter Horses foaled in 1940 or prior making them both 100% foundation. Since both of Texas Dandy’s parents are 100%, he is also 100%.

Doc Bar’s Maternal Granddam - Bar Maid F, AQHA #3033, was foaled in 1943. This means the percentage foundation calculation must continue through her sire and dam as was done with Texas Dandy. Bar Maid F is by Bartender II, AQHA #3313 and out of Nelly Bly, AQHA #3032. Both Bartender II (1937) and Nelly Bly (1939) are registered American Quarter Horses foaled in 1940 or prior making them both 100% foundation. As with Texas Dandy, since both of Bar Maid F’s parents are 100%, she is also 100%.

Last Step: Now add Doc Bar’s grandparents’ percentages to arrive at a total for foundation percentage: Three Bars = 0%, Della P = 100%, Texas Dandy = 100%, Bar Maid F = 100%, for a total of 300% foundation blood between the 4 horses. Divide the 300% total by 4 to arrive at an ‘average’ of 75%, which is Doc Bar’s foundation Quarter Horse percentage.

Now that you know Doc Bar’s foundation Quarter Horse percentage (75%) you can plug this figure into any pedigree he appears in and go on from there. The simple procedure explained above may be used over and over in a pedigree until you arrive at the final foundation percentage for any given horse.

In the final example, below, you can see the affect of multiple Thoroughbred’s in one pedigree. In this example, the American Quarter Horse stallion, Impressive is used:

Lucky Bar (TB), the sire of Impressive, is a registered Thoroughbred son of Three Bars (TB) and so is obviously 0% foundation Quarter Horse.

Glamour Bars, a daughter of Lightning Bar and a half sister to Doc Bar has already had her sire’s pedigree calculated (see pedigree of Doc Bar above). The next horse to calculate is Glamour Bars dam . . . Tonkawa Bar, a 1957 chestnut mare, her sire is Sugar Bars (Three Bars (TB) x Frontera Sugar #5731 (1943). Frontera Sugar is sired by Rey, #5727 (foaled in 1939) and out of an unregistered "Dun Mare by Ben Hur". Following the rules of calculation, this makes Frontera Sugar 100% foundation Quarter Horse, and when crossed on Three Bars (TB) she produced the 50% foundation American Quarter Horse, Sugar Bars.

Next is Bucket Baby, #52316. Her sire is Leo (foaled in 1940) and her dam is the old appendix mare (unregistered) Black Dahlia Bucket. This gives Bucket Baby a figure of 100% foundation. Add Sugars Bars at 50% and Bucket Baby at 100% which equals 150% foundation for the two of them. Divide by 2 and you will get 75% foundation blood. This brings us back to the calculation on the foundation percentage for Impressive’s dam, Glamour Bars. Her sire is 50% and her dam is 75%. The total of these two figures is 125%. Divide by two and you will get 62.5% as the foundation percentage of Glamour Bars. Next, add the foundation percentage of Impressive’s sire, Lucky Bar (TB), which is zero, to his dam, Glamour Bar’s, foundation percentage, which is 62.5%. The total of 0% and 62.5% is 62.5%. Once again divide by two to arrive at an average of each parents contribution. The result is 31.25% Quarter Horse blood in the American Quarter Horse stallion, Impressive. The balance of his pedigree is Thoroughbred for a whopping 68.75% TB!

The list below contain percentages on early and/or well known horses and should make calculating your horses foundation percentage easier.

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Foundation Percentage for AQHA Registration Numbers 1 - 5000.