Keeping trees smaller and keeping them horizontal are two different issues. If you keep trees smaller with repeated stub cuts you tend to extend juvenility. More vigorous rootstocks usually require letting the branches grow out further for the trees to become fruitful, but variety is equally important- Goldrush on 111 has similar precosity as Jonagold or Fuji on 26.
For home orchards I recommend more vigorous rootstocks and training them as low as you want but grafting if you want more varieties in less space.
Go to guides and check out my article about pruning by numbers to understand what I’m talking about as far as the effect of pruning.
In my work I often see and manage huge old apple trees on seedling rootstock that were trained into open center trees with scaffolds pulled low repeatedly to create a pedestrian or short ladder tree- but sometimes they have over a 60’ spread.