|
Queen Isabella's Horses for Columbus were switched for the Sorraia Duns |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
(Let's face it, no fancy, prancy horse could have traveled the rough and wild lands, like the little zebra dun). |
|
| The Spanish horse was brought to America by Columbus, to the Caribbean Islands and by the Conquistadors to Mexico, Southern North America and South America. These were the first horses brought to America. As they populated the Southwest and Mexico some were lost or stolen by the Indians and became un-owned. The Americas, especially the open plains of the west were the perfect breeding ground for the horse and they prospered. Their characteristics were small stature, usually 13 HH to 15 HH, smooth muscling, low set tail, convex face (from poll of the head to the tip of their nose), deep base of the neck, sparse hair on the fetlocks. When standing the front legs are slightly under the horse as if they are leaning forward and the hind legs will be up under the horse a little; that way the horse is ready to move and go at an instant. Higher at the withers than at the hindquarters. Spanish Mustangs are agile and surefooted and smooth gaited. Their action is fairly high. These characteristics defined their breed as Spanish and were recognizable by any knowledgeable horse man of the period. For the entire time they ruled the west the were not tainted by any other breed of horses. They were the horse of the Indian, cowboy, the Spanish trail blazer, conquistador and traveler of the west. | |
|
~ |
|
| In the 1870s there was estimated to be around two million Spanish Mustangs in the West. As America moved into the late 1800s, the government made the cattleman and the farmer to begin fencing the West. The Spanish Mustangs began being slaughtered, like the buffalo, to stop their competition with the cattle for grass. | |
|
|
|
|
~ |
|
| Judy Cubel, founder of Save Utah's Native Sulphur Horse has been corresponding with Dr. Gus Cothran (renown Horse Genetics @ Texas A&M), Ron Roubidoux (Co-founder of the original Sulphur Horse Association), Neda DeMayo (founder of Return to Freedom Spanish Horse Sanctuary) and Dr. Hardy Oelke (Sorraia Horse genetics). All agree that the Spanish Sulphur Horse needs to be saved and and have written letters to the Save Utah's Native Sulphur Horse in support of the Sulphur Horse Project, in hopes that the zebra striped horses will be preserved as part of our American Western History, Utah's Native Sulphur Horse. The Sulphur Horse breed is an unique and rare horse. | |
|
~ |
|
| Most of the wild Mustangs of today are the survivors from the Spanish Mustang herds. Since the West is the land of the horse they have prospered and make up the herds of wild horses that populate the BLM lands and exist at other sanctuaries. You will not see all the colors that were described above in the quote from J. Frank Dobie and you will not find all the breed characteristics mentioned above that define a Spanish Mustang breed type. There are only a little more than 1,800 registered in the Spanish Mustang Registry, but there are other Spanish Horses registered in other associations, such as The Sulphur Springs Horse Registry, American Sulphur Horse Association, The Carter Reservoir Registry, The Gila Bend Sanctuary, The Pryor Mustangs and the Coyote Canyon Mustangs. | |
|
~ |
|
| http://spanishmustangs.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/spanish-mustang-breed/ | |
