What Is a Stonewall Sporthorse?
Michael Muir, World champion, obstacles, Austria 2000
Michael Muir and Tony Kyprios with In The Black, Queensland Australia. 1982 Australian National Grand Champion Junior Stallion.
Michael spent a lifetime training and exhibiting horses, but his greatest joy has always been breeding them—shaping generations of athletes with heart, courage, and extraordinary ability.
The Stonewall Sporthorse is more than a breed—it is the life’s work and legacy of International Champion horseman and World Champion breeder Michael Muir, whose vision began decades ago at his beloved Stonewall Stud. From those early years, his horses began to distinguish themselves in remarkable ways: breaking world sales records, earning National Grand Championships across the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, setting world racing records, excelling in jumping and performance, and representing the United States on the world stage in carriage driving competitions in Great Britain, France, Austria, Germany, and Hungary.
Today, his work continues through Access Adventure, the organization he founded at the Solano Land Trust’s historic Rush Ranch. Here, the Stonewall Sporthorses have taken on a new and profound purpose: enriching the lives of people with disabilities and others who have been underserved, offering freedom, partnership, and healing through open space, outdoor recreation, and the gentle strength of horses. Their daily work is a living testament to the belief that horses can change lives.
Access Adventure volunteer, Randie Boardman, and Stonewall Moulin Rouge meet Libby Duncan at Rush Ranch.
The Stonewall Sporthorse lineage reaches back to the 1960s, built through a thoughtful, far-sighted breeding program. Some horses wear striking coats patterned in leopard spots; others are solid black or another color. But their beauty runs deeper than color. Every Stonewall Sporthorse is bred for soundness, heart, intelligence, and the courage to try.
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While some carry Appaloosa blood, many do not; their colorful coats trace instead to the noble Danish Knabstrupper. Carefully chosen influences from Friesians, Trakehners, European warmbloods, Percherons, and Thoroughbreds add strength, elegance, and the hybrid vigor that has become a hallmark of the breed.
Apache Double (b. 1969), world champion race horse and record-setting multi-million dollar sire.
These horses tend to stand a little taller than average, and they move with a natural presence that draws the eye. Above all, they possess a deep willingness—an ability to work, to learn, and to give.
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​In 2001, three Stonewall Sporthorse mares proved just how extraordinary this breed could be. Sisters Stonewall Blanche, Stonewall Stella, and Stonewall Scarlett pulled wheelchair-accessible carriages more than 3,000 miles across the North American continent. Their journey alone would have been impressive—but Stella’s story borders on miraculous. Only two years earlier, a catastrophic foaling accident had left her quadriplegic. Veterinarians offered no hope for survival. Yet Stella recovered, relearned to stand, to walk, and eventually to work again—and then completed one of the most demanding endurance drives ever attempted. Her triumph embodies the resilience and heart that define the Stonewall Sporthorse.
The Horse-drawn Journey Across America (2001). An international team of drivers with disabilities and their Stonewall Sporthorse mares travelling from California to Washington D.C.
The Stonewall Studbook began in the 1960s with show horses and expanded into racing through the 70s and 80s, producing animals athletic enough to transition into successful show careers when their racing days ended. As multiple sclerosis gradually took Michael out of the saddle, he turned to carriage discovering new purpose—one that aligned beautifully with what his horses were already proving they could become.
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​Michael Muir is the founder of the Stonewall Studbook and the original creator of the horses now known as Stonewall Sporthorses. The breed carries the name of the place where it began, but its meaning has grown far beyond a single farm. Today it stands for a legacy of courage, compassion, and the extraordinary bond between horses and the people whose lives they touch.
Four Stonewall Sporthorses at liberty, all produced by Stonewall Fantasia (b. 2005).