🐎 Inspiration Behind DeRace’s NFT Horses: 4 Most Popular Horse Breeds

4 min readOct 30, 2021

Let’s take a step out of the crypto world to explore conventional breeds of horses, which were the source of inspiration for the creation of NFT horses in DeRace NFT horse racing metaverse.

Currently, over 350 breeds of horses are raised worldwide. Though they may look quite similar at the first glance, each breed has its unique features. Different horse breeds are trained for different functions, from working and racing to casual riding and equestrian competition.

Today, we’ll take a look at 4 of the most beloved horse breeds that have captured people’s hearts throughout history and made horse racing one of the most prolific entertainment industries.

Thoroughbred

When it comes to racing, Thoroughbreds are the most prevalent breed in the world. They are preferred for being a rather multipurpose breed, which can participate in numerous types of performances besides racing, such as dressage and jumping.

However, this breed is categorized as a “hot-blooded” one, which means they are known for their speed and spirit. Due to this feature, Thoroughbreds might be hard to handle for beginners. Once trained, they are loyal and gentle horses that are commonly held as companion animals for pleasure riding.

American Quarter Horse

The most dominant breed of horse in the world today also came from America. Originally a mix of English thoroughbreds and Native American Chickasaw horses during the 1600s, the American Quarter horse is so far the most popular breed with the largest breed registry in the world. Nowadays, they are favorites of beginners and professional equestrians alike. This breed is famous for its agility, docility, and athleticism. In every race that there are American Quarter horse participants, they are always the shining star.

Appaloosa

The Appaloosa is known for its colourful, spotted texture and was bred by the Nez Perce Native Americans for its superior hunting and battle skills. These types of horses are thought to have descended from mixed breeding of wild horses with Thoroughbreds, American Quarter horses, and Arabian ones. Appaloosas are very versatile and renowned for their utility in herding, and pleasure riding as well as a reliable partner for long-distance trail riding.

Arabian Horse

The purebred Arabian horse is striking. An Arabian’s most identifiable characteristics are its finely chiseled head, dished face, long arching neck and high tail carriage. Its entire appearance exudes energy, intelligence, courage and nobility. Every time an Arabian moves in its famous “floating trot,” he announces to the world his proud, graceful nature. In general, Arabians have a short, straight back (usually one less vertebra than is common with other breeds), perfect balance and symmetry, a deep chest, well-sprung ribs, strong legs of thick density and a more horizontal pelvic bone position.

Horse breeds in DeRace Universe

DeRace NFT horses were hugely inspired by a few different real-life horse breeds. Coat patterns, body and face structure, ear shape and other features were created by our game designers to portray the authenticity of each breed. You probably have noticed that we also included a variety of mane and tail styles as it is very common for the horse owners to make their horses look distinctive by decorating their hair.

As in real life even the same breed horses might look different by having a varying coat colours/patterns, styling of mane or tail, etc. What really differentiate the breed is the body shape and the face structure. For example, Arabian breed can be easily identified by its distinctive dished face.

Currently, DeRace NFT horse breeds include Thoroughbred, Appaloosa, Arabian or Mixed breed (as mix of those breeds). There is also limited edition legacy breeds like Binancians, created to celebrate our partnership with Binance NFT.

You can easily filter through DeRace NFT horse breeds both on the Horse explorer on our website as well as on the secondary market platforms.

🏆 Which breed would you choose to win races in the DeRace NFT horse racing universe?

About DeRace

DeRace is a play-to-earn NFT horse racing metaverse where you can participate in horse races, breed NFT horses with unique characteristics, host races in your own NFT hippodrome and earn profit while doing it.

DeRace is electrifying the current NFT market by allowing players to fully interact with their DNA-enriched NFT horses and have full control of their own hippodromes.