Back in 1940, life in the United States was simple, despite a world at war and a complex future right at the nation’s doorstep. That March during the Fort Worth stock show and rodeo, a group of prominent ranchers and horse breeders from across the West gathered in the home of Jim and Anne Hall, masters of West Texas’ famed Burnett and Four Sixes ranches, to further a common interest–establishing a studbook and registry for America’s oldest breed of horse.

Bred since the late 1600s, when Virginia and Carolina horsemen referred to them as Celebrated American Quarter of a Mile Running Horses, American Quarter Horses by the 20th Century had characteristics that set them apart from other breeds–extreme speed, innate cow sense, an intelligent and willing disposition, symmetrical conformation, heavy muscling, bulging jaws, and little fox ears. The founders of the American Quarter Horse Association sought to preserve those and other characteristics.

Integral to the rules of registration was color; acceptable was pretty much any hue as long as it was solid over the body–white markings would be permitted only on the face and lower legs. Though the issue was (and would remain) very contentious, what finally was agreed upon in 1940 was simple: “All colors are acceptable,” said the AQHA bylaw, “except those commonly designated as spotted, Pinto, Appaloosa, and albino.”

There were two sides to what became known as the “white rule.” Bob Kleberg developed the famous King Ranch line of sorrel Quarter Horses with no white, because white leg markings often became sand-burned in the South Texas heat. On the other hand, nice horses with too much white–such as Lucky Boots and Hobo, both 1940 sons of the famous Joe Moore–were excluded.

“One of the great problems we had when we originally organized was due to color,” recalled Bob Denhardt, a Texas A&M University professor who organized the founding of AQHA and was the association’s first executive secretary. “Jim Minnick, Jim Hall, Jack Hutchins, Lee Underwood, and I, when we were drawing up the constitution and bylaws, decided that a lot of the trash horses on many of the ranches had a lot of color…and there were a lot of crooked legs and bad heads and so forth.

“Now with the Thoroughbred, a horse which we all admired, you didn’t see any paints. So we agreed when the original organization was formed to have only straight-colored horses. Later on, we had a lot of trouble with this, because some of our major lines–horses that went back to Traveler and Old Fred, for example–had paint blood in them and once in a while it would crop out.”

Over the decades, AQHA refined the white rule (Rule 227c), redrawing lines and expanding limits while trying to remain true to principle. But AQHA found itself in court over the matter, defending a lawsuit over a colt by racing champion Mr Jet Moore, which in 1977 at the appellate level was decided in AQHA’s favor.

Despite that horses with white over the limits could not be registered (and AQHA membership surveys consistently supported the stance), many horsemen insisted on breeding in as much white as possible. In the 1970s and ’80s, stallion ads shouted “chrome”–white, lots of white, everywhere it was permitted. Mares with blazed faces and white stockings on all four legs were covered by bald-faced studs with white to all four knees. Was anyone surprised at what happened?

Many finely pedigreed animals entered the world as grade horses. Many of those so-called “crop-outs” nonetheless received papers through groups such as the American Paint Horse Association (APHA). For that matter, APHA and registries such as the Appaloosa Horse Club record Quarter Horse crosses, just as the offspring of an American Quarter Horse and a Thoroughbred can be registered with AQHA.

Which leads to Paint and Appaloosa crop-outs, and the inevitable questions: Is an Appaloosa with no spots on its body or stripes on its hooves really an Appaloosa? Can a solid-colored horse really be a Paint?

Well, yes. Parentage verification via DNA testing rendered the subject moot. Genetically speaking, a Quarter Horse bred to a Quarter Horse is a Quarter Horse, period. So much for the white rule, which was largely eliminated by a vote of the AQHA Board of Directors at the Reno convention in March. The board added the following as rule 205(d): “Breeders should be aware that the American Quarter Horse, while long recognized, identified and promoted as a solid-colored horse, can and does occasionally produce offspring with overo paint characteristics. Such markings are uncharacteristic of the breed and are considered to be undesirable traits.”

Quarter Horse people–old-time and new-wave alike–can relax. AQHA has removed its rule. But it hasn’t forgotten its roots.