For a deeper understanding...

While

Authored By: Neil UiBreaslain


One from Another

In order to tell one Spanish Horse from another, one critical criterion must first be met - the horse cannot be stood up, stretched, squared, or otherwise posed, in any manner. These things can make a horse look like anything whatsoever the exhibitor desires. Which, of course, is the purpose - to make the horse seem to be something it is not.

I have a book, The Ultimate Horse, in which every horse is stretched, or posed, and looks exactly like every other horse in the book. One could never learn to identify any of them.

Therefore, in any evaluation, appraisal, or categorization of any horse whatsoever, there would be no use for me to address the horse under those conditions.

On the other hand, the horse standing natural, or taking a few steps, would reveal a totally different, and honest, picture.

Conquest vs. Colonial Spanish

There is an old Iberian saying, "The Elegant Will Not Serve in Hard Times."

In Spain, or Lusitano as the Romans called it, the Spanish horse of the Middle Ages (after the Roman invasion but before the Moorish invasion in 711) had four breed forms:

Jaca /Garrano;

Castillian/Alcaraz/Cordovan;

Andaluz;

Marismeño.

Some were more elegant than others, but there was a great overlapping of characteristics, movement, and behavior, such that to a stranger to the country they might all have seemed to be the same horse.

Fortunately, when Columbus brought over the first horses from Spain to the Americas, the least elegant, but most durable Spanish Horses were put on his ship. He took to Hispañola the most natural and hardy horses in the world - the Marismeño. Their qualities were not diminished in the tropical climates, so that, in a few years, the Spaniards were furnished with their best instrument for the occupation of America. Cortez used these same hardy horses rather than more Elegant ones, because:

First, these horses and their young acclimated to the new and severe, hot climate while the others, brought by Columbus in the next voyages did not;

Second, the elegant horses being brought in were too expensive to squander on such an undertaking.

Later on, the descendants of the horses Cortez had used - these intelligent, quick as lightning, almost uncrushable horses were the ideal horse in the fronter and pioneering conditions of Mexico and what became the Western United States. The Indians thought so too, as well as the French explorers as they spread down from the north (coming even into the Oshoto, Wyoming country, along the Little Missouri and Belle Fourche rivers, long before Louis and Clark in 1804).

These horses, then, were the Cayuses, the Chevaux à (au) Pelouse, the Texas Pony, the Indian Pony, the Cowpony, the Spanish Pony, and the Spanish Mustang, that roamed free throughout the West. Many maps have been drawn of the spread of these horses across the West, even into Louisiana and Florida.

Nonetheless, even after that, with the spread of Spanish Eminence in the Americas, there had commenced the importation of the 'Elegant' Spanish Horses, as well as, to a negligible extent, Barb Horses. With living conditions becoming ever more easier, these less hardy, showier horses were used by the then well settled, prosperous Spanish Colonists along the southern half of this country, from California to Florida, with these horses also sometimes being appropriated by Indians.

Today, with the 'civilizing' of the Gringo West, and with the innumerable crosses with brood stock from other lineage, Spanish horse breeding is in painful disorder. The homogeneous Spanish Horse of whatever type is ever so exceedingly rare, whether it be Spanish Mustang or their later supplementation, the more stylish 'Colonial' Spanish Horse.

Spanish Cast

All Spanish horses have much in common. They are, after all, a type of horse of and to themselves. There is such a thing as a Spanish Cast, quite unmistakable to those who are long-familiar with these horses.

Nonetheless, there is also a large amount of artistic fantasy that has been generated over the years and engraved into people's minds. Almost everywhere one looks there are drawings and paintings of horses, and particularly horses' heads, that suggest Spanish, or for that matter, Indian, attributes of some kind, but have little or nothing to do with the real thing.

Another problem is the idea that if it looks ragged and worn, it must be a Spanish or Indian Pony.

Left is a real "worn down Indian Pony enduring the Storm," though actually is a real two year old Spanish Mustang ejoying a fine Wyoming Windy Day. .

Right is a New Forest England wild horse, head hanging low, to show what might come close enough to matching to be confusing. Nonetheless, Henry III introduced Welsh ponies and Queen Victoria lent the forest her Arab stallion. There are now registered New Forest ponies all over Europe, North America and even Australia.
(www.Copyright-free-photos.org.uk)

Right is a 'fancy' Spanish Pony. on the same windy day, all three showing how easy it is to jump to conclusions.

So we see that small primitive horses can have much in common, such as short back, hips and shoulders narrow front to back, and even a rounded underline.

It is then that we must notice that the actual shape of the hip, head, legs, and neck are different .

Continued on
Sorting - Page 2.

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