Andalusian

   

Introduction:  This is a magnificent breed of international importance.  If you have any comments or suggestions, please click here.

Names:  Andalusian, sometimes called Spanish Andalusian.  Often referred to simply as the Spanish horse.  More recently, I have become somewhat acquainted with the term "Pura Raza Espanol" or PRE, which I originally thought referred to the Andalusian.  However, it seems that these are considered two different breeds, so I must do some research to determine what the difference is.

Origin:  The prehistoric horses of the Iberian Peninsula had evolved into an exceptional breed that served in the earliest Spanish cavalries and earned extra recognition when they caught the eye of Roman invaders in the third century BC.  Roman breeding farms sprang up in the southern kingdom of Andalusia, where most of these horses lived, and Julius Caesar commandeered the best of them for his campaigns.


According to Roman mythology, the ancient Iberian horse was partly born of Cefiro (or Zephyr), the soft west wind.

    According to the most probable accounts, the Moors introduced their African Barbs to Spain during their invasion in the 700s and crossed them with Iberian horses to produce the Andalusian breed.  Systematic breeding of the Andalusian began in 1571 when Philip II of Spain founded the royal stables at Cordoba.
    According to one source:  The Andalusian goes back to the old Iberian horse of antiquity.  Horse breeding, which declined during the mass migration of the population was given a new impetus under the Moors, particularly through the introduction of Barbs and Arabs.  The heyday of the Spanish horse was in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when it became the progenitor of practically all European saddle horse strains.  Its direct descendants are, for instance, the Lipizzaner, Kladruber, and Frederiksborg.  But the East Friesian, Oldenburg, Holstein and Orlov Trotter also go back to the Andalusian.

Breeding:  The Andalusian most probably descends from the Barbs and Arabs introduced into Spain during the Moorish invasion of the eighth century A.D., which were crossed time and again with native breeds, especially ponies.  According to another theory, however, it is descended from the Equus ibericus, which conversely, contributed to the development of the Barb, having crossed the isthmus that then linked Africa with Europe (the present-day Straits of Gibraltar), thus reaching North Africa.  Finally, there are those who claim that the Andalusian is descended from the two thousand Numidian mares that were shipped across the Mediterranean to Spain by the Carthaginian general Hasdrubal (younger brother of Hannibal).
   
In 1968, a British stallion, Lympne Golden Espanto, of Thoroughbred and champion Hungarian Shagya blood, was shipped to Spain as a gift to the celebrated horseman, Senor Peralta, for use with the Andalusians at his stud near Seville.
    Breeding areas:  Spain, Andalusia, Province of Cadiz, Seville, Medina Sidonia.  Studs:  Moratalla, Jerez de la Frontera, Cordoba.  (These areas and studs being the original home of the Spanish horse, it is worthwhile to note that they are now bred around the world, including in increasing number in the United States.)
    According to one source, the Andalusian was bred in Spain in the regions of Cordoba, Seville, and Cadiz, and along the Guadalquivir River.  In earlier times there two types, the light Jennet and the heavier Villanos (the latter bred mainly in Castile).

Description:  In 1774, Andalusian horses were described as having "thick necks with much mane . . . a fiery eye and noble bearing.  Horses of much pomp and ceremony."  Today they are lighter and speedier, but they retain their distinguished bearing and elegant action.  A horse of the mesomorphic type.

   

    (I couldn't resist including the above two pictures from The Young Specialist Looks At Horses.  This source stated that the general impression is a little weak, being of a rather rounded shape, but nevertheless elegant and attractive.  Apparently, the author preferred the Thoroughbred type to the Spanish horse, but it may also be based from pictures such as the one on the left, which bear somewhat less of the old warhorse look.  The one on the right is an Andalusian of an old strain and more closely resembles the original Spanish horse, to which look pictures like the ones at the top of the page indicate breeders may be returning.)

Action:  Rather stately and elegant; high knee action, short stride, not always absolutely regular.

Body:  Deep and short, with straight, short back; well-curved ribs; roundish abdomen; and powerful, rounded quarters.  Chest broad and deep.  Long, thick, arched neck, well-proportioned, curved, and well set-on.  Shoulder muscular and nicely sloping.  Thick-set rump with good barrel; withers low and round; croup also rounded.

Color:  Gray or white usual.  Also black, bay, brown, chestnut or roan.

Hair:  Mane and tail of long, thick silky hair.  Tail low-set, thick and wavy.  The same old source as above-mentioned mentioned the tail as sparse, but must have been referencing a poor example of the breed!

Head:  Long and handsome, with large and expressive eyes.  Ears small and set rather low, with the tips facing outwards.  Broad forehead, with profile straight or sometimes convex.  An old source said it frequently has a dished nose, but the sketch that went with it showed one with the proper Roman nose that is so common with this breed.

Hooves:  Well-formed.

Legs:  Strong with broad joints and long pasterns.  One old source described the limbs as usually too light in relation to the body, with knees and hocks often defective, particularly the latter; however, I have heard these complaints about the breed nowhere else.  Interestingly, the cannons have been described as both long and short; I am inclined to think they are relatively short, but will have to check out more sources.

Size:  15.2-16 hands.  Another source says 15.1 to 15.3 hands (1.55 to 1.60 meters), and weighing around 1,250 pounds (570 kilograms).

Temperament:  Balanced and energetic.  Good, reliable disposition, and fiery temperament.

Features:  Very surefooted.  Hard hooves and fine body hair are adaptations for the hot, dry climate.  Not built to gallop, but are supple and agile, courageous and spirited.  The Andalusian was greatly admired in the past for its elegant gait which included the paso de andatura, a high-stepping movement that is very effective in parades.
    Medium-sized, elegant, pleasant and fairly light saddle horse.

Uses:  Popular riding horse.  Good jumper.  Sometimes used as a circus horse.  Demonstrations of the high-school work done so naturally by the Andalusian horse were popular among European nobility.  As a result, Andalusians were used to found many other breeds from the 15th to the 18th centuries.  For several centuries, it was the premier riding horse in Europe, and was used in most Renaissance riding schools.

Accomplishments:  It was this spirited breed that accompanied conquistadors to the New World and returned Equus to its original home.  These Spanish discoverers of the 15th century were the first to re-introduce horses to the New World since the vast prehistoric herds became extinct.  Without these horses, on which the Spaniards relied for transport, the growth of discovery and conquest would have been retarded for centuries.
    From the twelfth to the seventeenth century the Andalusian dominated horse breeding in Spain, its only rival being the Arab.  Either directly, or through the Neapolitan horse, itself a descendant of the Andalusian, it influenced most European breeds, and as a result of having been shipped across the ocean by Christopher Columbus on his second expedition across the Atlantic, has contributed to the development of almost all American breeds.  The most important European breeds to have been influenced are the Lipizzaner, the Friesian, the Hackney, the Kladruber, the Frederiksborg, the Oldenburg, the Holstein, the old Norman horse, and the Orlov; of the American breeds the Quarter Horse and the Criollo have been most markedly influenced.

Curiosities:  Many of Richard I's knights rode Spanish destriers.  The quality of Spanish horses was also recognized in Edward II's reign.  In the 17th century, the Duke of Newcastle considered them "the gentlemen and princes of their kind."
    The Duke of Buckingham, who was sent to negotiate an alliance between Prince Charles (later Charles I) and the Infanta Maria, was bought off with gifts and shiploads of Spanish horsesmost of which reached the Duke's friends instead of the Royal stalls.
    What was it like to see a horse for the first time?  Or, in the 1500s, horses in tandem with bells on their necks and soldiers on their backs?  "Foam from their muzzles drips onto the ground in fat drops like a lather of soap," wrote one Aztec observer, who wondered if the animals were giants of the deer family.  "When they run, they make a loud noise, as if stones were raining on the earth."  Other Native Americans speculated that the newcomers were unusually large dogs.  And many rubbed themselves with their sweat to acquire the magic of the awesome creatures that had just stepped foot on their land.

Profiles: 

Conclusion:  Interestingly, according to one source, the breed commonly known as the Andalusian should more properly be defined as the "Spanish Horse," as the true Andalusian differs in various features:  it is of a heavier build, it does not include gray or chestnut in its range of coats, the height at the withers does not exceed 15.1 hands (1.55 meters), the back is more gathered, the quarters are more developed and the foot is smaller.  Although this breed is not now as popular as it once was, it is still of considerable importance because of its distinctive influence on many modern breeds.  Today it is mostly used for pleasure riding, and it is only in the bullring or at the corrida that it relives its glorious past.

Spain * Search-Terms * Diagrams