The Spanish horse of the Middle Ages is represented by three forms that are well known, and one not so well known:
First, the little horse of the north that was the Jaca or Garrano.
Second, the horses of central Spain and which were influenced by the importation of larger war horses by the warriors of France and Flanders as they aided in the first two centuries of Reconquest. This horse formed the Castillion, Lorvan, Sierra de Alcaraz, Baesa, Ubeda, Jaen, and Cordoba horses. They were brown, plump, and of elevated movements, and fleshy headed, .
Third, the Andaluz horses of the South.
Fourth, and not so well known, a native group along the meridional streams, the indigenous line element. It was the Marismeño (Swamp Horse) that exists today.
Throughout Europe of the Middle Ages, the Spanish horse was the true horse of quality blood, and for that reason was exported to all parts for the purpose of making light horses. The horse par excellence, recommended for travelers, for sport, and for war, the fame of the Spanish horse grew by all those who knew him. Since his export was prohibited, he was procured by contraband or whatever means, by other countries, to be utilized as crossing stock. The Spanish horse was used to improve all the breeds of France, Flanders, England, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Hungary, and especially all of Italy, starting with Charles the Great in the 9th century, and going until Luis XV in the 18th century.
There emerged once again, the use of the light, sturdy, and courageous Spanish Horse of Battle. Thus, the Combat Assault Tactics, permitted by the manageability and resiliency of the Spanish horse, marked this new school of war. Fast, light, maneuverable war horses, the Spanish horse became called 'Villani di Spagna': Spain's Villains.
'Villani di Spagna': Spain's Villains – words that are a most grievous stain inflicted onto the Spanish horse, not by his enemies, but by his own friends. The constant influx of invaders into Spain over the coarse of some two thousand years must have imbued the resultant people of Spain with a thirst of conquest for themselves. With the final defeat of the Moors in 1492, it could only be expected that Spanish Conquest of other lands would have begun.
From being the Equi-Frenati feared by the Romans invading Iberia, to becoming the Villani di Spagna feared by the Italians in the hands of the invading Spanish, was a sorrowful turning in the fame of the Spanish horse.
The world's mightiest Emblem of Defense had been turned into the world's best Instrument of Destruction.
In desperate reflex against the superiority of the Spanish horse, manifest in Naples in the 16th and 17th centuries, there emerged, for the purpose of defensive imitation, the Neapolitan School of training horses for combat. From this derived all of the (horse) high schools of France (Pignateli, Pluvinel), of Italy (Fiashi, Grisone, Corte), of Germany, Denmark, and Austria. Through them was inspired the modern high school, La Gueriniere.
Thus it came to be, in war and in peace, that from Spanish horses in the old world, the most pure blood foundation basis, were derived the French trotters, the Royal Mares; the ponies of Connemara; the Anglo-Norman; the Limosino; the Tarbes of France using Spanish, not Arabian as boasted; the German saddle horses, Oldenburger, Mecklenburger, Holsteiner, Hannoveraner, Kladruber (with the oldest European stud based on Spanish blood!), Lipizzaner (Austria and Yugoslavia) Frederiksburger and Knabstrupper (Denmark), Friesian (Netherlands). In the same way came the Denmarks, the Flamengos, and almost all the Italian breeds;
[Spanish Horses in war were only overshadowed by the introduction
of revolving firearms with the first airplane.]
Time Segment One -
Ancient Emergence
Time Segment Two - Iberia up through the Moorish Invasion
Time Segment Three - During the Middle Ages
Time Segment Four - Coming to the New World
Time Segment Five - Indian Ponies
Time Segment Six - Anglo Settlement and Westward Expansion
Spanish Mustang Research Facility - Welcome