The Australian Stock Horse (also known as 'ASH') is an Australian sport horse breed, which was created from the heavier Waler breed, to serve as a stock horse and a sport horse.

A new 'all-rounder':
The Waler (see 'Waler') was a popular breed in Australia until the 1960s, when mechanization rendered it obsolete, leading farmers to release their Waler horses to roam freely on their properties.

Starting from the beginning of the 1970s, there was a growing demand for horses suitable for sports and leisure riding. Therefore, Australian breeders decided to use the heavy Waler in order to establish an authentic and athletic Australian breed that will be an 'all-rounder', meaning will be able to perform decently in various disciplines.

Starting with selective breeding of Waler horses, and continuing with the introduction of Thoroughbred, Arabian, Quarter Horse, and sport warmblood bloodlines, the Australian Stock Horse was created.

A versatile horse:
As the name of this breed suggests, the Australian Stock Horse is, first and foremost, a stock horse capable of working cattle, including in the challenging field of campdrafting. This, thanks to two vital traits it inherited from its Quarter ancestors: muscular conformation, especially of the hindquarters, and cow-sense, meaning the ability to 'read' the behavior of a cow and predict its movements (see the 'American Quarter Horse' for more info).

Furthermore, the Australian Stock Horse also inherited the lighter conformation of its Thoroughbred and sport warmblood ancestors. This enables the Australian Stock Horse to perform well in various athletic disciplines, among them are dressage and show-jumping.

Today, the Australian Stock Horse is common in Australia, where it is regarded as the ultimate all-rounder, used as both a stock and sport breed in a large variety of disciplines, especially in the fields of campdrafting, dressage, polo, and eventing.

Conformation:
Because of their name, Australian Stock Horses are sometimes believed to have a stocky body from head to tail, similar to some lines of Quarter Horses. While this is true for most of their body, this is untrue when it comes to their neck which is visibly slender.

Australian Stock Horses have a wide head, a slender neck which is medium-to-long in length, prominent withers, a back of medium-length, muscular hindquarters and shoulders, and slender legs although they are not too slender to support their body.

Performance metrics:
The following are the: range, average, (SD), and MOE of performance metrics of ordered Australian Stock Horses in Horse Isle (not bred ones). In rare cases, horses might have metrics outside of the range. Breeders can produce horses that are beyond this range.

Speed: 15.7-17.4, 16.6 (0.3), 0.07.
Sprint: 60-72, 66 (3), 0.55.

Accel: 1.03-1.21, 1.11 (0.03), 0.01.
Decel: 0.98-1.12, 1.05 (0.04), 0.01.

Jump: 5.31-5.57, 5.42 (0.05), 0.01.
Pull: 2.04-2.75, 2.38 (0.17), 0.03.

Turning: 57.32-70.25, 63.29 (2.71), 0.53.
Reverse: 2.6-3.3, 3.0 (0.1), 0.03.

Stamina: 47.02-52.49, 49.92 (1.31), 0.26.
Reaction: 0.76-0.82, 0.82 (0.03), 0.01.

Coats & Height:
Colors: bay, black, brown, chestnut, grey, dun, cream-dilutes, silver-dapple, champagne.

Additionals: flaxen, linebacked, minimal-mealy, rabicano, roan, frame-overo, splashed-white, white-spotted [termed as 'sabino'], tobiano, all rare patterns.

Breeding notes: pinto Australian Stock Horses will be heavily penalized if the white areas exceed 70% of their body.

Height: 14hh to 16hh.