Alford Stables is located on a 150 acre farm in Buffalo, MO. It has been in the family for four generations having been purchased in 1942. It was on this farm that Jo Ann (Neill) Alford was raised. She would walk to the fields where her father was working horses just to be able to ride them back to the house.Many years later, married and a mother to two young daughters, her passion for horses came to the forefront again. Jo Ann and her husband, John, made an agreement. She would get “one registered Fox Trotting mare good enough to show” and John would get a ski boat.In 1969, she got that “one good mare” and laid the genetic cornerstone of Alford Stables with the purchase of her first Fox Trotter – a black foundation mare named “ J’s Cricket” (F-2005). The complementary cornerstone for the Alford’s breeding program was put in place in 1977 with the purchase of the young buckskin mare – “Pride’s Bronze Spirit”. That amazing mare added the “big lick” and unique “bronze” buckskin color that would be distinctive for generations. This was the beginning of a family business (obsession) that has spanned over 50 years and produced multiple generations of champions. The legacy started by Jo Ann and John Alford is now carried on by their daughters Jan and Julie and granddaughter Jamie and the descendants of Cricket and Spirit. (John never did get his ski boat, but he got lots of joy and satisfaction from watching his wife and daughters show their horses.)