Colonial Spanish Horses are of great
historic importance in the New World. They
descend from horses introduced from Spain during the age of the conquest of the
New World. Our Colonial Spanish horses are therefore a treasure chest of genetic
wealth from a time long gone.
Colonial Spanish Horses are rarely referred to by this name. The usual term that is
used is Spanish Mustang. The term Mustang generally carries with it the connotation
of feral horse, and this is somewhat unfortunate since many of these horses have never
had a feral background.
The Colonial Spanish horse became to be generally considered as too small for cavalry
use by the whites, and was slowly supplanted by taller and heavier types from the
northeast as an integral part of white expansion in North America. In the final stages this
process was fairly rapid, and was made even more so by the extermination of the horse herds of
the native Americans during the final stages of their subjection in the late 1800's. The close
association of the Spanish Horse with both native American and Mexican cultures and peoples also
caused the popularity of these horses to diminish in contrast to the more highly favored larger
horses of the dominant Anglo derived culture, whose horses tended to have breeding predominantly
of Northern European types. The decline of the Colonial Spanish horse resulted in only a handful
of animals left of the once vast herds.
This handful has founded the present breed, and therefore are the horse of interest when considering
the history of the present day North American Colonial Spanish Horse. "
Dr. Phillip Sponenberg, DVM, Ph.D
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