Intelligent, hardworking, and even-tempered with a gentle disposition, the colorful Choctaw horses are a strain of the Colonial Spanish horse. While held in high esteem by the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and anyone who has worked with the ponies, they’re unfortunately listed as Critical by The Livestock Conservancy. The Choctaw ponies that exist today are descendants of animals that survived a trans-Atlantic journey and the forced relocation of the Trail of Tears. Therefore, these animals are tough, strong, and willing to perform a variety of tasks.
Pony History
The ancestors of the Choctaw people and horses indigenous to North America lived together during the Pleistocene. Evidence shows that horses were hunted 13,000 years ago for their meat in the Southeast. Whether through overhunting or climate change, horses went extinct at the end of the last ice age in North America.
According to Ian Thompson, “Choctaw society for 600 generations or so developed without the horse, and then the horse was brought back into Choctaw country by the Spanish.” Thompson is the tribal historic preservation officer of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma and senior director of the Historic Preservation Department. He has a doctorate in anthropology with a focus on Native American studies.
“Possibly with the de Soto expedition, or possibly with some of the groups that came a little bit before de Soto, the Choctaw were reintroduced to the horse,” Thompson says. “The Choctaw name for horse is issuba, which comes from issi holba, which means ‘like a deer.’ That’s significant, because at that time of the 1500 and 1600s, the deer was the most important animal in the Choctaw economy.”

The first encounter that’s written about the Choctaws and horses was at the Battle of Mabila in 1540. After toppling the most powerful polity on Earth at the time – the Incas – de Soto headed for the Southeast U.S.
“The Choctaw ancestors were aware of this, and by the time de Soto got to Choctaw country, they knew pretty well what he was about,” Thompson says. “One of the Spaniards stabbed or slashed one of the Native leaders with a sword, and the Choctaw ancestors responded with a barrage of arrows that sent the Spanish outside the walls. But the Spanish counterattacked with horses and reentered and eventually destroyed the town.”
That battle ultimately introduced the Choctaw people to horses. And although several Spanish horses were captured that day, those horses didn’t become breeding stock for the Choctaw.
“It appears the Choctaw people obtained ponies of our own through trade with the Caddos, who lived in Louisiana [and Texas], and they, in turn, got them in trade with some of the Plains tribes, who in turn got them from some of the Spanish settlements in New Mexico.”
Records show that the Choctaw Nation started raising ponies around 1690. Initially, the horse was sometimes a food animal, as during the ice age, but soon, the Choctaw people started to raise them for transportation. The trails across Choctaw country were footpaths, but with the arrival of the horse and its adoption into the Choctaw economy, the footpaths changed around 1720. The trails broadened to accommodate the horses.
“There are accounts that Choctaws didn’t like to trot horses. They would run them at full gallop most of the time when they were traveling,” Thompson says.
Because of its need to graze, the horse changed Choctaw agriculture as well. Fences were designed to keep the ponies out of the crops. And with the ease of travel and transportation, the advent of the deer hide trade started. France, England, and eventually the United States all wanted hides. This led the Choctaw people to overhunt deer in what is today Mississippi.
“By the 1780s, Choctaw hunters were traveling into present-day Louisiana and Texas and southeastern Oklahoma to hunt deer, and, of course, this was aided by the horse,” Thompson says. “As the colonial process continued, a number of Choctaw people started to develop a household economy based more on ranching than on the hunt.”
In the early 1800s, there were stories about how when a child was born to Choctaw parents, they would set aside a mare and a colt, a bull and heifer, and all the different types of animals the child would need to start a farm. By the time they were old enough to marry, they would have a herd of their own and be ready to set up their own households and individual farmsteads. Accounts from this time also mention young Choctaw children being put onto the back of a horse and learning how to ride.
“On the Trail of Tears in the 1830s, a number of families brought their horses with them,” Thompson says. “Conditions were incredibly harsh. There was a huge fatality rate for both Choctaw people and horses on the Trail of Tears. But ultimately, some of the horses did survive to come to what’s now Oklahoma. Choctaw Nation rebuilt its economy.”
They focused on agriculture and ranching. Their main cattle breed was the Pineywoods, another rare breed. Over time, horses became less integrated into the southeastern Oklahoma economy, so they became less common.
Choctaw Horses of Today
Today’s ponies tend to be extremely colorful and self-sufficient, with many having bright-blue eyes and some having stripes on their legs or down their backs.
To preserve the strain of this Colonial Spanish horse, a Choctaw chief – and Thompson’s wife’s grandfather – helped care for a large herd. Today, breeder Bryant Rickman has been working tirelessly to keep the Choctaw pony from going extinct. Rickman has brought breeding stock together and created pedigrees.
“Rickman put together a pretty sizable herd, and we’re eternally grateful to him,” Thompson says. “My wife and I shared a couple of those horses, and we raised them for the past seven or so years. It’s a special connection with my wife and her own family legacy through those horses. The horses are really beautiful.”
In Virginia, breeder Mary Carter McConnell met with Rickman in 2006, and created a herd in 2007 with the help of Bryant and Darlene Rickman and Phillip Sponenberg, DVM, PhD, one of the founders of The Livestock Conservancy.

“They love to work,” McConnell says. “We had a stallion that would jump the fence just to come hang out at the barn with us.” McConnell adds that they’re incredibly athletic, and also “intelligent and have this ability to understand.”
“It’s very flattering,” she continues. “Of all the breeds I’ve had, this one is totally addicting, because they actually want to work with you. If I go out and I’m cutting weeds with a machete in the field, the whole herd comes over to just sort of hang out. If you’re picking somebody to work, everybody wants to be it, so you hear them yelling, ‘You have to pick me!'”
McConnell started her original herd with two stallions and four mares, and one mare came with a bonus foal. Her herd has been up to 70 horses but currently has around 50. “This includes my new baby from my oldest mare, who was born in 1986,” McConnell says. “She just produced another fabulous little foal yesterday.”
In 2008, McConnell added another truckload of horses to her herd. In 2011, there was a deep drought in Oklahoma, and she brought another truckload of horses so the breeding could continue. Since then, she’s had 7 to 12 foals a year.
McConnell recently turned 70 and is now downsizing. And while she sold the farm, she says she doesn’t think she can ever give up on these horses. She was initially drawn to them for their athleticism and their personalities. She visited a rare-breed farm at The Livestock Conservancy’s meeting in Vermont and watched the Choctaw horses jumping and noticed how much endurance they had. Once the herd was in Virginia, she started trying them in various sports, and they kept performing exceptionally well.

“They absolutely love fox hunting, and they can jump the moon,” McConnell says passionately. “In fact, my stallions just jumped the fence when they were young all by themselves.”
McConnell’s father was born in Oklahoma, near Antlers, where Rickman lives. So, she feels appreciative of the history and everything that went into the selection and development of these horses. “You look at every structure when selecting your stallions,” McConnell explains. “You really want that perfect specimen. I particularly like a great mind. I have a stallion who’s a bay, he’s not a big flashy color, but everything he produces has this brain.”
She says that people joke that Choctaw horses are born broke because they’re so easy to start and work with. “I love the gorgeousness of them, but I also don’t want an aggressive or a stupid horse. So, the mind is very important,” McConnell says. “I like everything to have a job. You kind of look at them and think, is this going to be a jumper? Is this going to be a driving horse? I have a bunch that are doing dressage right now.”

The Choctaw pony was selected for gentleness and smoothness, which shows today in their gait. “By selecting your best and weeding out what isn’t as good, I’m very proud of what we’re producing, and I feel very fortunate that when Dr. Sponenberg and Bryant Rickman helped me put together the herd, they did it with the awareness that we needed a breeding pod in Virginia.”
Chocataw Pony Preservation
McConnell says people should consider adding the Choctaw pony to their homestead primarily because they’re tough. “My 38-year-old horse just had a foal, and she and her baby are fine. She’s a brilliant mother. Their feet are amazing. Farriers laugh. I have some that have never had their feet done. They have great management. They’re so smart. When they’re out in the field, they tend not to do stupid things.”
In 2010, she experienced a blizzard. She found her thoroughbred horse shivering in the barn. When she went to check on the Choctaw horses, she found all of her weanlings were in a foot of snow, jumping in a circle over fallen trees. “They thought it was a blast,” McConnell laughs at the memory. “They had opened the icy water, and they were just amazing. They were just having this kind of snow party.”
Another reason McConnell believes people should preserve the breed is the lack of medical issues. “If you think of their history, first you had to survive a crossing on a ship from Spain in Europe to the New World. Then, they had to survive coming up through the Caribbean with de Soto, and then they had to walk the Trail of Tears in the 1800s. If you couldn’t do that, you’re not part of this breeding pool. So they’re tough. They’re strong. And they’re fun. They’re playful. I’m obviously quite obsessed with them.”
To contact McConnell about how to preserve the Choctaw pony, email MaryCarterMcConnell@gmail.com.
Kenny Coogan lives on a permaculture landscape and runs a successful carnivorous plant nursery. Listen to him host the “Mother Earth News and Friends.”
Originally published in the March/ April 2025 issue of Grit magazine and regularly vetted for accuracy.