Andalusian Horse

Origin: Spain.

Height: About 16hh.

Color: Nearly always gray. Can be black.

Character: Intelligent, affectionate and proud.

Physique: Medium-big head with slightly convex face, large, expressiveeyes, neat ears, carried nobly on a strong, crested neck. Big, well-madeshoulder, deep chest. Longish, straight back; broad, compact body withstrong loins, powerful, rounded hindquarters. Legs clean and strong, withhocks well let down and short cannon bones.

Spanish historians claim that there were horses in the Iberian peninsula before the subsidence of the Straits of Gibraltar, and that these horses camefrom Africa. The first importation of horses to Spain on record were the 2,000 Numidean mares brought by Hasdrubel of Carthage - legendary animals who were claimed to be "faster than the wind," and who were left to run wild in Iberia until the Roman invasion of 200 BC. The Romans tamed this Spanish horse, but after their retreat it was free to run wild again.

Over some 600 years, Spanish horses breed naturally without humanselection. The beginnings of a true type came into existence following theinvasion by northern European barbarians, mainly Teutonic, who con-quered the part of Spain later to be named for them - Vandalusia. TheVandals brought with them horses of a "pure Germanic" type; tall horses,with long slender necks and stout bodies, who interbred with the indigenousSpanish animals.

In 711 AD the Moslems invaded Spain and stayed for eight centuries. Inthe first wave of the invasion they brought with them 300,000 horses which were almost certainly Barbs. The first official stud, at Cordoba, was startedby the Moslem Almanzor, and the Barb-Teutonic-Iberian cross began to stabilize into the Spanish horse.

Fighting the Moslems taught the Spanish to breed for selective purposes.Riding the heavyweight German-Spanish type of horse they had little chanceagainst the fantastic agility of the Arab- and Barb-mounted Moslems, whocould dart in from the side and, with the use of razor-sharp stirrups, slashthe Spanish horses' tendons simply by sticking out a leg. About the time ofthe conquest of Granada (11th century) the Catholic kings switched overto light cavalry, heavy armor was abandoned, and the Spanish horse becamenot just a means of transport but a fighting animal. This was achieved bymixing the Spanish horse freely with Oriental blood. From this time onwards Spanish horses of the Andalusian type spread throughout Europe, wherethey contributed enormously to the improvement of native stock.

The military importance of good horses had been thoroughly impressedupon the Spanish leaders, and throughout the Middle Ages the kings of Spain practised selective breeding and offered inducements to breeders-large-scale breeders could not be imprisoned for debt, their eldest sons wereexempt from military service, and so on.

The greatest breeders of the true Andalusian were undoubtedly themonks, whose obsession with purity of line was little short of the fanatical,and who even threatened to excommunicate followers who veered awayfrom the national equestrian style. In 1476 the Carthusian monks in Jerez acquired 10,000 acres of land through a bequest, and, along with two other Carthusian monasteries, began the production of Andalusians, bringing tothe job an intelligence and devotion that was greatly aided by the enormous wealth of the Church at their disposal.

It was as well that the Carthusian interest had been aroused, since Andalusians had a disastrous time at the Royal Stud during the reign of Philip III. Hieronymo Tiuti, manager of the stud, crossed the purebreds in his charge indiscriminately with Norman, Danish and Neapolitan stallions, all of which were Roman-nosed, producing a slower, heavier type of carriage horse. Later, Napoleon's marshals creamed off the best of the Spanish studs and wiped out many of the divergent strains. No good Andalusianswere left, save for a few concealed here and there by the Carthusians and a small 'nerd hidden by the Zapata family.

In the 19th century a new stud was begun under Ferdin and VII and the

Andalusian began to prosper once again. Despite religious persecution theCarthusian monks persevered with their own line of Andalusian selection,which has resulted in a very slightly coarser type of horse known as theAndalusian-Carthusian, or Carthusian.