People were asking for a side by side of Jeepers to show his Tevis conditioning. Currently he is the only Quarter Horse registered for Tevis, which obviously can change as people don’t always know or register what horse they plan to ride on the big ride if they are conditioning and training with multiple.
Bigger bodied breeds have been less common at Tevis as of lately, I partly attribute that to the heat becoming more difficult post loss of tree cover from the mosquito fire, and the rest of it being I see less “backyard” horses conditioned up, and more people breeding and buying bloodlines for endurance success as our sport is aging out and you have an income gap between us Millennials (or Gen Z - discluding juniors who are financially supported in the sport) and the more seasoned Gen X/Boomers with more resources. It isn’t about whether or not a QH can do Tevis. In fact the most Tevis finishes were on a Quarter Horse!
IMO- there is no breed more willing and versatile than our American Quarter Horse.
It has presented it’s own challenges though, like finding a pace without burning out my horse and preventing muscle cramping at vet holds where he goes from working hard to sitting still.
(He is wet in the second pic but it shows muscle definition well) I genuinely don’t think this is something non-horse people can see, but if you know you know.