Iberian horse

1743 engraving depicting an Iberian horse

The Iberian horse is a title given to a number of horse breeds native to the Iberian peninsula. At present, no fewer than 18 horse breeds are officially recognized^[1][2][3]

Iberian horses are thought to be among the oldest types of domesticated horses. Modern Iberian breeds tend to be of a Baroque horse type that resemble their most famous member, the Andalusian horse, in conformation.

The Lusitano, Sorraia and Garrano are Portuguese, and the remaining are Spanish. These include the Asturcón, Burguete, Caballo de Monte del País Vasco, Pura Raza Gallega, Pura Raza Española (Andalusian horse), Hispano-Árabe, Hispano-Bretón, Jaca Navarra, Losino, Monchino and Pottoka, as well as the Cavall Mallorquí, Mallorquín and Menorquín (subsets of the Balearic breed^[4]).^[5] A spinoff from the Sorraia, the Marismeño, has also been identified living in Doñana National Park, but is not on the FAO list.^[6][7]

List of commonly accepted Iberian horse breeds

Breed	Country of registry	Breeding method[8]	Number (approx.)[9]	Comments
Andalusian horse (Pura Raza Española)	Spain, other countries		199,852
Asturcon	Spain	semiferal	2,319
Basque Mountain Horse	Spain	semiferal	> 600[1]	meat horse
Burguete	Spain	open field	4,814	Heavy work and meat horse. Has some mixture of Breton blood
Galician Pony (Pura Raza Gallega)	Spain	semiferal	1,526	Under the term faco or del país there are a number (perhaps over 20.000 [10]) of closely related semiferal horses not on the Stud Book
Garrano	Portugal	semiferal	>950[1]
Hispano-Árabe	Spain, other countries		7,286	Of mixed Spanish / Arabian horse blood
Hispano-Bretón	Spain	open field	14,902	Work and meat. Of mixed Breton-native blood
Jaca Navarra	Spain	semiferal	1,020
Losino	Spain	semiferal	754
Lusitano	Portugal, other countries		23,619[11]	Includes Alter Real strain
Mallorquín	Spain		320
Marismeño	Spain	semiferal	1,051
Menorquín	Spain		3,125
Mérens horse	France		>7.000[1]
Monchino	Spain	open field	782
Pirenenc Catalá	Spain	open field	7,133	Still not on FAO list but recognized in Spain since 2012. The type has partly blood from French heavy breeds
Pottoka	Spain, France	some semiferal	>2.600[1]
Retuerta horse (Caballo de las retuertas)	Spain	feral	60-140	First described in 2005[12] No official status yet
Sorraia	Portugal	feral	>100[1]	[13]

Procedures have been started to include the Serrano horse.^[14] It's a very scarce (less than 40 individuals) mountain big pony variety

References

1. 'FAO breed list', accessed March 15, 2012, cites 3 Portuguese and 20 spanish breeds
2. 'R.D. 2129/2008', accessed March 13, 2012, which is the official Spanish list. Only fomento and en peligro de extinción sections, which are the iberian breeds, list 15 breeds. The remaining breeds are of well-known foreign blood, or like the deporte español are recent developments
3. Both lists are divergent, partly because the Spanish list is more recent-last changed February 2012- and partly because FAO list as different entities two Mallorquin horses -in Spanish and Catalan- as different breeds. The FAO lists also lacks another breed, Troton Español, which is bred solely in Mallorca
4. Genetic characterization of the Spanish Trotter horse breed using microsatellite markers, Genetics and Molecular Biology, accessed November 5, 2009.
5. Lopez, María S. et al.. "Mitochondrial DNA Insight On The Evolutionary History Of The Iberian Horses." Poroceedings of the XIV Plant and Animal Genome Conference, 2006. Web page accessed June 17, 2007 at http://www.intl-pag.org/14/abstracts/PAG14_P594.html
6. Royo, L.J., I. Álvarez, A. Beja-Pereira, A. Molina, I. Fernández, J. Jordana, E. Gómez, J. P. Gutiérrez, and F. Goyache (2005). "The Origins of Iberian Horses Assessed via Mitochondrial DNA". Journal of Heredity. 96 (6): 663–669. doi:10.1093/jhered/esi116. PMID 16251517. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
7. (A. Rodero et al, 2008) needs full cite
8. Following classifications apply for the Breeding:
   • feral, at least on discovery
   • semi-feral. Roams free in an area and are only collected and managed once a year
   • Open Field: Grown in the field, with minimal management
9. For Spanish breeds, unless otherwise noted, we took the most actual data in 'the Spanish Official Breed Catalog on-line' (in spanish), accessed March 15, 2012. Data thus are from 2010 or 2011. Those gotten from FAO are data from 2001
10. 'La Voz de Galicia', in Spanish, accessed February 12, 2016
11. 'Fundaçao Alter Real', in Portuguese, accessed May 16, 2012
12. The Retuertas horse; the "missing link" in the iberoamerican horse breed origin?, Vega-Plà et al 2005, available at eeap.org
13. Oelke, Hardy. "The Sorraia Horse, General Information". Sorraia Folheto Informativo. Retrieved 2012-03-16.
14. 'Proceedings of the Regional Parliament of Madrid' (in Spanish)

External links

• The Origins of Iberian Horses Assessed via Mitochondrial DNA
• International Andalusian & Lusitano Horse Association
• Andalusian Horse Link
• Lusitano Horse Link
• Report on DNA of Spanish horses
• Info on Jaca Navarra (Spanish) (Google translation)
• OSU Losino page
• AndalusianWorld