Web hosting Custom Email SiteBuilder

D.P. Sponenberg DVM, PhD
 

EVALUATION OF SULPHUR HERD MANAGEMENT AREA BLM HORSES - AUGUST, 1993

D. P. Sponenberg, DVM, PhD, Veterinary College, VPI, Blacksburg, VA 24061 703-231-7666

SUMMARY

The Sulphur Herd Management area horses that are present as adopted horses in the Salt Lake City area appear to be of Spanish phenotype.    The horses were reasonably uniform in phenotype, and most of the variation encountered could be explained by a Spanish origin of the population.    That, coupled with the remoteness of the range and blood typing studies, suggests that these horses are indeed Spanish. As such they are an unique genetic resource, and should be managed to perpetuate this uniqueness. A variety of colors occurs in the herds, which needs to be maintained. Initial culling in favor of Spanish phenotype should be accomplished, and a long term plan for population numbers and culling strategies should be formulated. This is one population that should be kept free of introductions from other herd management areas, as it is Spanish in type and therefore more unique than horses of most other BLM management areas.

BACKGROUND

Detailed historical background of the Sulphur herd management area horses is not available. The limited amount of history available points to this population being an old one, with limited or no introduction of outside horses since establishment of the population. The foundation of the herd is logically assumed to be Spanish, since this the only resource available at the time of foundation.

Spanish type includes sloping croup low set tail, deep body, narrow chest, deep Roman nosed head from side view, broad forehead but narrow face and muzzle from front view, eyes place on side of head, small ears with inwardly hooked tips, small or absent rear chestnuts, small front chestnuts, potential of long hairs on stern area and chin. All colors are possible, although a high proportion of black and its derivatives are consistent with a Spanish origin. Line backed duns, roans, buckskin/palomino, sabino and overo paint, and the leopard complex are also usually Spanish in origin, and grey and tobiano can be.    It is frequently the mix of colors and their
relative frequency in the population that is more important than the presence of absence of any one color.

PRESENT STATUS

The horses removed during the last few years from the Sulphur Herd management area are Spanish in type. Thirty four horses were inspected during my visit. Of these 10 were of excellent Spanish type, 10 were of good Spanish type, and 10 were only moderately Spanish in type (although some of these were excellent, if nonSpanish, horses), and four were clearly different from-generally acceptable Spanish type. The fact that the horses were so consistently Spanish type is evidence that these horses have a Spanish origin.  Most of the inspected horses fit into the Spanish description.    Those that deviated from it tended to have wider fronts than desire and somewhat broader or coarse heads. Roman noses were not prominent, though, and so
some of these "atypical" animals still had very acceptable conformation as horses, but lacked the typical Spanish appearance desired. Some ears were long, and some lacked, the inward hooking tips. Chestnuts were usually moderate and not small; some were large. Black and grullo were common, with bay and zebra dun common as well. Chestnut and red dun were also present, but less common. This is consistent with a Spanish origin, although it would be interesting to determine if other colors occur in other parts Of the range.

Gus Cothran has blood typed a small number of these horses, and is struck by the frequency of antigens known to be of Spanish origin. While further sampling would be useful, he is confident that this population will ultimately prove to be one of the more consistently Spanish of feral populations so far studied.

RECOMMENDATIONS
The Sulphur herd management area horses are generally Spanish in type, and should be managed to enhance this characteristic. Other populations of feral horses that are Spanish in origin are very rare (Pryor Mountain MT, Marble Canyon AZ, and Kiger OR, although these last are varying from Spanish phenotype more than the others). Since the Spanish feral horses are the only feral horses of truly unique and irreplaceable genotypes, they should be manager as a genetic resource in addition to other BLM requirements.
In the case of the Sulphur herd I recommend that target population levels be set that are consistent with this population being able to sustain itself without needing introductions of outside, non-Sulphur, horses. This maintenance would assure its continuation as an unique herd of Spanish horses. I also recommend that for the next several years the removal/adoption process concentrate on removal of the least typically Spanish and retention of the most typically Spanish horses. This process may be difficult for a few years, with removal of some older animals. It must be stressed that the broad front is not typically Spanish, while the deep body with narrow chest is.
Following the first few years the removals should only have to involve younger animals that are of less Spanish appearance. The long term management should quickly develop into the removal of younger animals that are surplus to the population, but these should all be of Spanish type as the population becomes more uniform for this type. Given the remarkable uniformity of the population already, this process should not take very long.
The Sulphur herd is minimally variable for color, and this variation should be maintained. I only saw bay, black, chestnut and the line-backed modifications of these (zebra dun, grullo, and red dun). I suspect that on some portions of the range other colors persist since they are mentioned in the herd management plan. It is important to not cull these. The preference for the line-backed colors is based on myth, and these colors do not imply that the horses are more Spanish than those lacking these colors. The same is true of the white marks: they are perfectly allowable. While the appeal of the line-backed colors is undeniable, the other colors should be
maintained at levels that prevent their extinction.
The Sulphur Herd Management Area brochure is good and informative, but I would recommend a few changes.
First, late additions to the herd are only speculative, and since the herd is so consistently Spanish in type I would concentrate on that. Also, I would point out that various colors (not just the line- backed ones) are consistent with a Spanish origin. I like the stripes, but they can be overemphasized to the point that people equate them with Spanishness, which is inaccurate. Another technicality is that there really is no such thing as a "Spanish Barb".
The Spanish Colonial type horse is the foundation of these mustangs. The Barb is a North African horse, descended originally from Iberian horses.    Finally, some conformational details on the drawing could be more Spanish (narrower front, finer face/muzzle, sloping croup). These points are picky, but the brochures do a great job of educating, and accurate details will help in the education process even more.
List of sulphur Management horses inspected, August, 1993 by Sponenberg and Roubidoux. Excellent = top
third, Good = middle third. Horses listed in the order in which they were seen, check with Ron for names of owners.

first stop
 dun filly    good
 grulla filly somewhat coarse, bottom third.
chestnut filly     good, but has big chestnuts.
black foal good, difficult to be certain due to age.
Trujillo stallion - bottom third. Roached back, head somewhat coarse. bay gelding - not typical. grulla gelding -
good, well conformed and Spanish in appearance. grulla mare and foal - good, typical red dun Jones mare -
excellent in type. grulla Torres filly - excellent, finely made, Front is good. grulla foal - good to excellent,
depending on how facial width develops. chestnut mare - very wild, appears to be in bottom third. Large chestnuts. Jensen dun stallion - good, head lacks definition (as I remember) one stop, I forget the guy's name  black colt - bottom third, largely due to broad face.
 sorrel filly - somewhat better than colt, but still bottom third.
 bay stallion - excellent. The best roman profile, and a very assured,
 classy animal. He is one of the best overall animals.
Grant grullo stallion - Common head, bottom third.  Lack of stallion attitude.
Duce animals:
 dun stallion - bottom third, wide front.
grullo stallion - good, but head could be more typical. dun filly - excellent, very typical. black filly - good
Steve Hart animals:
 red dun gelding - bottom third. High croup.
 black colt - excellent, very typical
 grullo colt. Excellent. very typical
Rhonda
 bay female, bottom third (wide front, the most common fault)
 red dun female - bottom third
 red dun stallion - too wild to evaluate
Roubidoux
 dun stallion - stocky, but excellent
 grulla mare - excellent
 grulla filly - excellent
 grulla foal (.filly) excellent
 bay mare - poor. large, wide, and wide faced.
 dun older filly - bottom third or lower, from bay dam
 dun younger filly, better, but still bottom third.

 Overall: These horses cluster very nicely as a Spanish type population. They are generally soundly conformed, in addition to the Spanish type. The most common of the deviations from Spanish type are the wide fronts, wide facial areas, long ears, and large chestnuts. These horses that are not typically Spanish are still well conformed on average. This should make them very adoptable and serviceable.    Basically, even the nonSpanish horses in the group are good horses, just of the nonSpanish type.

Conservation of Spanish Mustangs/Colonial Spanish Horses in the USA,
and the need for a complete inventory of remaining undocumented
horses.

D.P. Sponenberg
The Spanish Mustang is a direct lineal descendant of the Spanish Colonial Horses that were brought to the New World during the Spanish conquests. These horses persist today in three major ways. One of these is in a relatively few and highly isolated feral herds. A second is in the herds of traditionally minded Native Americans.
The third way is through the activities of well organized breeders and ranchers who have used this type of horse.
The organizations that have sprung up from this conservation effort include the Spanish Mustang Registry, the Spanish Barb Breeders Association, the American Indian Horse Registry, the Southwest Spanish Mustang Association, the Kiger Mustang Association, the Pryor Mountain Horse Breeders, and the Florida Cracker Horse Association. These seven organizations have largely relied upon the activities and interests of a variety of interested and motivated individuals. The history of their activities is largely to identify and accept as purely Spanish those horses that meet external, historical, and occasionaly bloodtype evaluation.
It is an opportune time to expand the activities of the existing organizations to include a more active search for and inventory of the remnants of Colonial Spanish horses in the USA. To date this has not happened, but instead the organizations have relied on interested others to bring horses or herds to their attention  The result has been that pure horses outside the organizational structures have not been documented nor recognized, and these are the horses that are in danger of slipping away unnoticed by the organized conservation efforts.
The main places that this search should occur are among the feral BLM herds of
horses, and among the horses of the Native Americans. While it is certain that
herds of purely Spanish horses of these sources will be rare, it is equally true
that even the few that might still exist are of great conservation interest.
 Current conservation efforts withing the various organizations are functioning  well and are focused. They have done a good job in securing most of the Spanish  horse genetic resource that is present in the USA. This success means that the  major interest in outside horses is mainly in herds of appropriate type and history There is no longer any need to consider the rare individual horse that turns up, unless such an individual is extremely good and very extremely Spanish.
Any other individual horses, especially if they are more average, are simply not important enough in terms of the entire population to warrant much activity. In contrast to these individual horses are entire herds or groups of horses of Spanish type. These larger groups are very significant to the conservation of the Colonial Spanish horse in the USA, especially since they represent entirely new founder strains that have previously been overlooked. Entire herds that have to date been overlooked are going to be rare, and will only number in the low teens. This does not diminish their importance. Such herds are most likely to be under BLM or Native American management.
 In order to accomplish an inventory for the BLM herds it will be necessary to take the horse management areas one by one and decide for each if the horses are or are not of Spanish breeding. Most horses are clearly not of Spanish breeding, but some few that are Spanish have already been documented. These include the Pryor Mountain, Cerbat, and Kiger herds. This list is very preliminary, since ongoing investigations are still needed even for these herds.  The sequence of events for evaluating BLM herds includes and evaluation of the external type, then evaluation of the history of the region as to the isolation  of the horses from outside breeding, and then finally blood-typing can be helpful in many instances to point to a Spanish origin of the herd. The external and historical evaluations are probably only to produce a handful (five would be optimistic) of new herds that are of genetic conservation interest.
The native American herds present a different challenge. The overall goal here  is similar, though, in that the horses of interest are the ones from herds or! breeding programs of consistently Spanish horses.    The rarely encountered individual horse is not of the same importance. Traditional horses are likely  to be raised by isolated full-blood Native Americans, or in remote corners of  large reservations. The evaluation of these herds should be similar to those of the BLM management areas.
  The Spanish type horse is the only unique type likely to be encountered in either the feral or Native American herds (barring the outside chance that indigenous North American horses did indeed survive to Columbus's day). These Spanish horses are rarely appreciated, but instead the usual wisdom is that they need to be bred to be taller, heavier, and smoother. This is usually called "breeding up" the mustangs, and dilutes the unique genetic resource that these horses represent. This dilution is due to the fact that the Spanish horses are among the most unique horses in North America, and to blend them with other types therefore means a reduction in the
uniqueness of the genetic resource. The 'breeding up" of these horses should therefore be discouraged, especially since the purely Spanish horses are now very rare and hold such a position of traditional importance.  Spanish horses, when found, should be managed in their areas for continued purity.

  Characteristics of Spanish Horses
  Spanish horses have a distinct set of physical traits which help in their differentiation from other breed types. All horses colors occur in Spanish horses in the USA, although some breeders may favor one color over others. There is no color that disallows a horse from being Spanish. Colors include black, bay, chestnut, sorrel, grey, buckskin, palomino, dun, grullo, red dun, cream, and any spotting pattern such as tobiano, overo, sabino, appaloosa, and roan. In most herds with a Spanish origin the black and black based colors are usually common, as are linebacked duns and roans. Still, any color can and does occur in these Spanish horses, and no one color or group of colors proves a Spanish origin one way or the other.
  The Spanish horse has some range in type from light to heavy, and also varies in size from about 13 to 15 hands high. The average height is probably in the neighborhood of 14 hands. The head of Spanish horses is distinctive, with a flat or convex facial profile and the nose itself being convex or Roman. This is a Roman nose, and is distinct from the huge Roman head of draft horses. This head shape is in contrast to that of most other horses such as Thoroughbreds, Quarter Horses, and Arabians which tend to have straighter profiles and squarer noses. The head on Spanish type horses is usually broad when viewed from the side. From a front view the head
is broad, but the face is narrow and fine. Some Spanish horses have large eyes, others have fairly small eyes (pig eyes) which are also seen in Spain. Ears vary from large to small, some curve in delicately at the tips.
  Spanish horses are generally deep bodied when viewed from the side, but tend to be narrow through the chest when seen from the front. Their legs in front are attached close to one another and the chest appears as a "v" rather than the flatter and broader conformation of the Quarter Horse. The back is usually well conformed and close coupled. The croup slopes rather than being flat, and some are goose rumped. The tail is set on low, rather than the high tail set of Arabians and related breeds. The legs are usually clean, although some few sport some feathering. Rear chestnuts are usually absent. Muscling, even in the heavier types, is long and tapering instead
of short and "bunchy".
  There is some belief that having only five lumbar vertebrae is a useful indicator of pure Spanish bloodlines. While some Spanish horses have five, many have six. In fact, Arabians are as likely to have five vertebrae as are Spanish horses. This characteristic is therefore of very little value in deciding if horses are Spanish or not.
  AMERICAN COLONIAL SPANISH HORSE UPDATE, AUGUST
1992

D. Phillip Sponenberg, DVM, PhD
Colonial Spanish Horses are of great historic importance in the New World. They descend from horses introduced from Spain during tne age of the conquestadors into the New World. They are a direct remnant of the horses of the Golden Age of Spain.

CONFORMATION, TYPE, AND COLORS
The Colonial Spanish Horse is generally a small horse, although size is increasing with improved nutrition and some selection among breeders. The usual height is around 14 hands, usually varying from 13 to 14.2 hands but up to 15 in some exceptional horses. Weight varies with height, but most are around 700 to 800 pounds. Distinctive conformational features include heads which generally have straight to concave (rarely slightly convex) foreheads and a nose which is convex. This is the classic Spanish type head, in contrast to the straighter nasal profile of most other breed types. The heads vary somewhat between long, finely made heads to shorter, deeper heads. Both are typical of Spanish horses. From a front view the cranial portions of the head are
wide, but the facial portions are narrow and fine.
The horses typically have narrow but deep chests, with the front legs leaving the body fairly close together.    It is difficult to describe this aspect of conformation without making it sound defective, when in actuality it is strong, serviceable conformation. The chest is usually vee shaped rather than straight across as in most other modern breeds. The chest is deep from the side view, and usually accounts for about half of the height of the horse from the ground to the withers. The croup is sloped, and the tail is characteristically set low on the body.
The rear quarters vary from fairly massive and heavily muscled to a more slenderly built and less excessively muscled conformation. From the side there is usually a break in the curve of the hind quarter somewhere in the area of the base of the tail, rather than the full even curve of the Quarter Horse.
The muscling is characteristically long and tapering, even in the heavily muscled individuals, rather than the short and bunchy muscling characteristic of bulldog Quarter Horses end draft breeds. Leg conformation is generally sound, with ample angles in the joints and strong, harmonious relationships between the lengths of the varying plates of the limbs. Hooves are small, and chestnuts and ergots are small or missing altogether.
Shoulders are long and well anglsed, and withers usually sharp.
These horses usually have a very long stride, and many of them have gaits other than the usual trot of most breeds. These other gaits can include a running walk, single foot, amble, pace, and the paso gaits of other more southerly Spanish strains.
One myth frequently told is that these horses have only five lumbar vertebrae. They are more likely to have five than are most other breeds, but many pure colonial Spanish horses also have six lumbar vertebrae, as has been demonstrated by work done in Argentina on Cfiolios, Thoroughbreds, Barbs, and Arabians. They do usually have short, strong backs regardless of the number of vertebrae.
Various registries have had an important role in conserving the colonial Spanish horses. They have also focused their breeding on a specific type of horses, which is the type described above. This type varies somewhat from the rangier, more lightly built individuals to others that are more compactly and more heavily made, but the range is fairly narrow between these two types. The original Spanish type was more variable, including some horses with higher set tails, broader chests, and rounder conformation generally. The Lipizzaner horses from
Europe are illustrative of this point concerning the variability of Spanish horse type. Lipizzaners are a numerically snail breed of mostly Spanish descent which springs from  base established fairly close in time to the Spanish colonial Horses, but from more highly selected horses. Within the Lipizzaner are some Horses that would be acceptable as the Spanish Colonial type, but many that would  not be. Lipizzaners have a history of largely or solely Spanish breeding for
 centuries, but are in fact very variable in type and conformation. This can only
. be appreciated by visiting the European herds, since the photographs in breed
 books and the horses exported to the USA all tend to be a narrower range of types
 more desirable to North American breeders.

This variability calls into question what is truly Spanish type in horses. Certainly there is some wisdom in the registries limiting the range of allowable types in order to produce consistent, predictable horses,    It is equally important to recognize that some horses that are considered outside the type desired by the registries are still entirely of pure Spanish breeding. It is worthwhile to recognize that horses of newly found purely bred Spanish Colonial horse herds may be more variable than the present horses in the registries. The registries then usually
accept only some and not all of the horses from these herds, although the horses are all indeed of purely Spanish breeding.

The reasons for the registries not accepting some of what might in fact be Spanish types are based in the history of the conservation of Colonial Spanish Horses in North America type. These horses were originally saved as a small minority of horses in the midst of a large population of horses based on Spanish breading but then deliberately crossed with draft, Thoroughbred, Morgan, and other types derived from northern European breeding. The range of Spanish types that are likely to be refused registry cannot really be told externally from other types, such as horses with Quarter Horse or Thoroughbred ancestry. Even though some horses with such
an appearance may be purely Spanish, they do pose a much greater risk of introducing outside genetic influence than do those horses of the more uniquely Spanish types that are not confusable with these other breed influences. By concentrating on the most unique of the Spanish types the registries have also assured that this rare genetic resource has been conserved with minimal contamination, and are to be commended on their foresight for doing so.

Colors of the Colonial Spanish Horse vary widely, and it is through the Spanish influence that many other North American horse breeds gain some of their distinctive colors. Colonial Spanish Horses come in a full range of solid colors including black, bay, brown, chestnut, sorrel, grullo, zebra and red dun, buckskin, palomino, and cream. Other solid colors such as the lighter brown based colors, and perhaps even silver dapple occur rarely as
well. In many horses these base colors are combined with white hairs or patches to result in grey, roan, paint (tobiano, ovate, and sabiano types) and the leopard complex of blankets, roans, and dark spots usually associated with the Appaloosa breed. The overo pattern is especially interesting, since it seems to. be limited to North American Colonial Spanish horses or their descendants. From that origin the color pattern has spread to other regions and breeds, but all evidence points to its being a North American pattern originally. Different breeders
select for various of these colors and patterns, but all can be shown to be present in the Spanish horses at the time of the conquest.

GENERAL HISTORY

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 important part of the background of these horses is that they are Spanish. These are descendants of the horses that were brought to the New World by the Conquistadors, and include some feral, some rancher, some mission, and some native American strains.

The Spanish Colonial Horse is the remnant of the once vast population of horses in the USA. The ancestors of these horses were brought to the New World by the Spanish Conquistadors and were instrumental in their ability to conquer the native civilizations. The source of the original horses was Spain, and this was at a time when the Spanish horse was being widely used for improvement of horse

Breeding throughout Europe, The Spanish horse of the time of the conquest had a major impact on most European light horse types (this was before breeds). The Spanish horse itself then became rare, and was supplanted as the commonly used improver of indigenous types by the Thoroughbred and Arabian. These three (Spanish, Thoroughbred, and Arabian) are responsible for the general worldwide erosion of genetic variability in horse breeds. The Spanish type subsequently  became rare and is now itself in need of conservation. The horse currently in
Spain is distinct, through centuries of divergent selection, from the Colonial Spanish Horse. The result is that the New World remnants are very important to overall conservation since the New World varieties are closer in type to the historic horse of the Golden Age of Spain than are the current horses in Iberia.

The original horses from Spain were relatively unselected. These first cane to the Caribbean islands, where populations were increased before export to the mainland. In the case of North America the most common source of horses was Mexico as oven the eastern populations were imported from Mexico rather than the Caribbean.    The North American horses came ultimately from this somewhat nonselected base. South American horses, in contrast, tended to originally derive about half from tho Carlbean horses and half from direct imports of highly selected horses from Spain. These later imports changed the average type of the horses. This difference in founder strains is one reason for the current differences in the North American and South
American horses today.    Other differences were fostered by different selection goals in South America. Both factors resulted in related but different type of horses.

At one time (about 1700) the purely Spanish horse occurred in an arc from the Carolinas to Florida, west through Tennessee, and then throughout all of the western mountains and great plains.    In the northeast and central east tho colonists were from northwest Europe, and horses from those areas were more common than the Colonial Spanish type. Even in these nonSpanish areas the Colonial Spanish Horse was highly valued and did contribute to the overall mix of American horses.    Due to their wide geographic distribution as pure populations as well as their contribution to other crossbred types the Colonial Spanish Horses were the most common of all
horses throughout North America at that time, and were widely used for riding as well as draft. In addition to being the common mount of the native tribes (some of whom measured wealth by the number of horses owned) and the white colonists there were also immense herds of feral animals that descended from escaped or strayed animals of the owned herds.

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 oven 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 brood, and so these are the horses of interest when considering the history of the current breed.

-FOUNDATION STRAINS OF THE PRESENT BREED FERAL STRAINS

Some of the purely Spanish horses remained in isolated feral herds. Such pure horses became rare fairly early in this century due to the practice of shooting the Spanish stallions and replacing them with draft or blooded stallions in an attempt to 'improve" or '*breed up" the feral herds as sources of draft or remount stock. Bob Brislawn, founder of the Spanish Mustang Registry in 1957, used many feral horses in his herd. Several of his foundation horses were obtained from Monte Holbrook, an Apache living in Utah who was an excellent mustanger (capturor of feral horses). In addition to his abilities as a mustanger were those of his  Wife Sadie
, and their daughter and their son all had reputations equal to Monte's. Most of the feral Component to the Brislawn horses was from Utah,  although isolated horses from other herds contributed as well. The Brislawn horses contributed widely to the present breed. Most of the feral herds that served as the original source for the Spanish Mustang Registry were subsequently
 contaminated with other breeds of horses, and ere therefore no longer purely  Spanish. The horses within the SMR represent the only contribution that those  once pure herds can now make to the breeding of the Colonial Spanish Horse.
 I later and major source of feral Spanish Colonial type horses were the herds in
 the Bookcliffs of Utah. These horses also figure prominently in the Brislawn as
 well as some other herds. In some herds these are still present as a unique
 strain.
  Feral horses of the Cerbat Mountains in Arizona else contributed to the Colonial Spanish Horse of today. The original group captured from this area was caught by Ira Wakefield, who was a very accomplished mustanger. The Carhat herds have a known history of purity on their present range since 1862. While lra kept horses from a variety of sources throughout his long life the Carbat horses are the only ones of his that made an impact on the present Colonial Spanish Horse. Today the Carbat horses from the original capture have been supplemented by
more recent Bureau of Land Management captures from the same ranges. The newer horses are identical in type to the older ones, giving added credence to the history. The strain is used by a variety of breeders of Colonial Spanish Horses, and is also kept as a distinct strain by Marye Ann and Tom Thompson. The horses come from a very restricted range, end are very uniformly conformed. They also have some unique blood types, which is another indication of their value for conservation. The feral Cerbat herds are still pure, and are being managed by the Bureau of Land Management to remain pure within themselves. These feral herds will hopefully
continue to be a source of this unique genetic type along with animals of the same strain being raised domestically. The Cerbat horses are a classic old Andalusian type and are roan, bay, or chestnut.
  Another important feral group is the Kiger mustangs from Oregon. These are feral horses of Spanish type that are selected to be dun, grullo, or red dun. These are managed both in the feral herds and An herds of private breeders. The excess horses from the range herds are periodically rounded up and sold to interested buyers. The herds currently vary somewhat. Some are still of Spanish type, but others are smoother and taller than the usual Spanish type of conservation interest. Whether this conformation is the result of crossbreeding in the past, or due to selection from a Spanish base, it is less useful to Spanish horse conservation than is the more clearly
Spanish type which also exists in the herds.
  The Pryor Mountain mustangs range on high terrain between Wyoming and Montana. These horses have Spanish conformation, and the blood types of the horses are also those expected of horses with Spanish ancestry. They are an interesting group since colors include bay, black, roan, chestnut, dun, grullo, roans, and a few buckskins and sabianos. This array of colors, especially the relatively high proportion of black and black based colors, is also consistent with a Spanish origin. The Pryor Mountain mustangs are an important resource for Spanish Horse conservation in North America. The Pryor Mountain mustangs are fortunate in inhabiting the first wild horse refuge that is specifically Set up to conserve mustangs. That they are Spanish is au added bonus,
and private individuals are now becoming interested in conserving this type.

  Other feral horses that are included in the foundation horses of the registries are usually individual horses with the correct Spanish appearance rather than an entire group of horses such as the Carbats or the Holbrook group.    These individual horses came from North Dakota, California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico.
None of these represent a lane of breeding in the same way that the Holbrook/Brislawn horses or the Wakefield/Thompson/Cerbat horses do since none have been bred within the original group.    They do, however, contribute importantly to the overall mix of feral contribution to the Colonial Spanish Horses,  Most feral herds remaining today are crossbred with non-Spanish horses. Recent success, especially with the Pryor, Carbat, and Kiger horses, has stimulated some investigation into the feral herds that are controlled by the Bureau of Land Management for other herds of Spanish type. If other herds of the correct type are found then the history of the feral horses in the area will be considered, along with blood typing information, in order to
determine if any of these herds should be added to the list of Spanish type herds. These can then be managed to guard against incursion of non- Spanish horses. Such a program has several advantages.     It keeps the feral Colonial Spanish horse in the original environment so that selection pressures keep working to produce environmentally resistant horses. If any other feral Spanish herds remain they are probably very, very few in number.

NATIVE AMERICAN STRAINS

Feral horses were not the only group to contribute to the Colonial Spanish Horse of today. Many foundation horses came from the horse herds of native Americans. The native herds were especially important early in this century. Most of these tribal horses have only influenced the present brood through individual horses and not through groups of horses that continue to be bred pure within the strain. Tribes contributing to this are Cheyenne, Leketa, Palute, Naymia, end a few others. Horses from the Northern tribes contributed heavily to the Brislawn hard, along with the aforementioned feral stock they used. The search is always on for breeders or families that have kept the original type pure, but these become rarer and rarer as the years so on.

A few tribal types have continued to be bred as distinct strains. The Choctaw and Cherokee horses are among these. Both of these tribes, in addition to the Chickasaw and Creak, were avid horse brooders in their original homes in the southeast. The quality of their horses is specifically mentioned as being excellent in various travel journals. Following removal of these tribes to what is now Oklahoma they continued to breed horses. The basis for these Oklahoma herds was horses brought from the southeast on the Trail of Tears, but no doubt some western horses were added as well.    The original horses were Spanish, obtained at first from the chain of missions across the deep South in early Spanish colonial days. The additions were surely Spanish as well and some have unique blood types as evidence of the accuracy of the oral history of isolation surrounding these herds. These tribes became important as mediators between several of the more western tribes and the US government, and it is likely that exchange of horses between tribes occurred during the many meetings that were held.

Some individual families were important in preserving the tribal horses. The Whitmire line, also including horses from the Corntassle family, is a Cherokee line that can be traced back to the removal from Etocha, Georgia in 1835. It probably goes back even further as court records from 1775 indicate that these families had horses then. These horses were always kept within the line on the female side, although outside stallions were occasionally introduced.    The stallions were of Mexican, Choctaw, or Comanche breeding, and were therefore also Spanish. Some of the Comanche stallions came from the Black Moon Comanches of Oklahoma, and were of leopard type color patterns. At least one Mexican stallion was a buckskin leopard. The outside stallions were carefully and specifically selected to be as similar to the Cherokee strain as could be had. Many of the Cherokee horses that remain today are gaited, and many are unusual color patterns including several medicine hat paints.

The major Choctaw families that preserved the horses until recently were the Brame, Crisp, Locke, Self, Helms, Thurman, and Carter families. Horses were run on the open range in areas where other types of horses were not kept. These families had hundreds of horses of consistent Spanish type and widely varying colors including the 'Spanish roan' sabiano type, leopard and blanketed, and others. Many are overo paints. The Choctaw horses are occasionally gaited. They are also quick. Hal Brame was noted for taking his little paint horse to parties and dances end would wager on races over 50 yards. He took I lot of money from owners of Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds who went away with increased respect for small paint Indian horses  From the hundreds of Choctaw and Cherokee horses that were available as recently as 1975 there are now very few. This is due to the dispersal of many large herds following the deaths of some of the elderly breeders.
Probably only 50 pure Choctaw and Cherokee horses could be assembled in 1988, but some few breeders are trying to assure that this type continues to the future as a part of the overall breeding of Spanish horses. Most of the present Choctaw horses are in herds of Bryant and Darlene Rickman, are most of the Cherokee horses. Many horses in the various registries are of partial Choctaw breeding, so the type has made a wide impact on the general Colonial Spanish horse.

 Other native tribal horses are rare and poorly documented. There is always hope that a few of the old strains are being quietly kept by some tribal breeders. This is especially likely in the full blood communities which tend to be fairly isolated and treasure the old original cultures of the tribes. Work is currently underway to find and assess these strains before they are lost as elderly breeders can no longer maintain them.    This is  high priority for the conservation of the Spanish Colonial Horse, although only very, very few of these are likely to persist.

    RANCHER STRAINS

 Another important subtype of Colonial Spanish horses is the rancher strains. Some of these, such as the Wagoner horses, figure not only in the background of the Colonial Spanish Horses but were also used in with the American Quarter horse. Most of the old Ranch Strainswere Spanish in the 1800's, with the later addition of horses from the Northeast. These additions were
probably Morgans, light draft  horses, Thoroughbreds, and the old Eastern sort of quarter Horse. The polpulation of ranch horses was bred increasingly away from its spanish base.
 From this somewhat consistantant Spanish base were developed the more Common breeds
 that are associated with the American West: American Quarter Horse , Paint, and
 Appaloosa. These have been largely seperated on the basis of color, but were originally part of a population that included all these colors.As selection has proceeded in these breeds with continuos outcrossing to Thouroughbreds and Quarter horses the original Spanish influence has become minimal.

One rancher that kept the original Spanish type was I1o Belsky. He ranched in Nebraska and his herd began from horses that were accompanying cattle driven from Texas in the late 1800's. The best horses were kept, and then were selectively bred from most of Ilo's long life. Belsky horses are now very rare is an unique strain of Spanish horses, but they do figure in the background of many Spanish Mustangs and Spanish Barbs. Belsky popularized these horses as ranch horses very early An the history of the conservation of this type of horse. His horses were commonly roan, grey, dun, or dark colors.

Another important rancher strain is the Remote strain. These are from a ranch near Cabella, New Mexico where Spanish type horses were raised for generations. The Romero ranch passed to the McKinley family, but by now few if any horses of the original strain are stall maintained on the original ranch. These horses figure heavily in some lines of Spanish Barb horses.

Another independent New Mexico line confusingly also involves  family named Romero, but is also associated with the Gonzalez and Marques families in the Rio Arriba County are. They were all involved in the active trade that New Mexicans had with the Comanche tribe for a period covering several centuries but most active in the l800s. Some of these Romero/Gonzalez/Marques horses were gaited and also had very flashy sabiano paint
patterns. This influence persists in some horses raised by Bob EIo and Gilbert Jones. Gilbert Jones, currently of Finley, Oklahoma, was also instrumental in maintaining Spanish horses. Due to his moving from Texas to New Mexico and thence to Oklahoma his herd had influences from a wide variety of sources. Early horses ho had included many Kiowa, Comanche, and Chickasaw horses •s well as some from Anglo ranchers such as Tom Waggoner. Some of the tribal horses were from strains of buffalo runners once frequently used on the Llano Estacado of Texas. These horses were all blended into a single strain. When Bob Brislawn spent a few years in
Oklahoma there was also exchange of Brislawn type horses and Jones horses. Later in the development of the strain were many Choctaw and Cherokee horses, and these represent a high proportion of the breeding of several Jones horses today. His herd is one of the few sources of wagoner, Tom East, Kiowa and Comanche breeding left today.

As is typical of land race type populations, newly discovered herds of Colonial Spanish horses continue to come to the atention of breeders of this type of horse. A recently found herd of horses in Sassbe, Arizona fits into the rancher strain category, although it also is the last remnant (so far known) of Spanish Mission type horses. These are the horses of the Wilbur-Cruce family. This strain was begun with 25 mares and stallion that were bought in 1880 from Juan Sepulveda who was a horse trader from Northern Mexico. The horses originated in the region of Mexico that was the area of Father Kino's missions. This area had been a source of high quality
horses since around 1700. The original horses were kept as a closed strain except for a single horse used for two years in the 1930's. This horse is described as having been a 'paint Morgan' from Colorado. The description and location make it more likely that ho was some sort of Spanish horse. This stallion was traded for some of the Wilbur-Cruce strain and was turned out on the range. The ruggedness of the range combined with his being the new kid on the block make it doubtful that he contributed much to the herd.

The Wilbur-Cruce herd was brought to the attention of breeders of Colonial Spanish horses in 1989, and illustrates an important point when dealing with land races. It is critical to the conservation of the genetic resource of these populations for the organized studbooks to remain open and receptive to inclusion of new pure herds as they are recognized and documented. As time goes on such new herds Mill be recognized only rarely.
They will always contain valuable genetic material for conservation as always important new discoveries. The Wilbur-truce horses are more variable in type than the horses in the registries, even though they do have a Spanish origin. This is interesting in that they are an example of closed herd that includes some outlier Spanish types.

MEXICAN STRAINS

In addition to the feral, tribal, and rancher horses were some from Mexico. These Mexican horses usually were single horses and not  strain. One exception was a group assembled by Ira Yates, who also figures prominently in the history of the Texas Longhorn. These Yates horses are small and are dun or grullo. They still persist in the care of Tally Johnson. The horses were originally from 150 miles southwest of Mexico City. The original group, assembled in 1950, included two stallions and two mares.    One stallion was infertile.    The line still continues today, which is food for thought that inbreeding need not always result in the decline of a line of
animals.

Other individual Mexican horses came into the Jones line, and were horses from tho Huasteca tribe. These horses came from Yucatan in Southeast Mexico, and are responsible for many of tho leopard type markings in some strains today. Other Mexican stallions were used in the Jewel Whitmire line of Cherokee horses, but the exact source of the stallions is unknown. The Mexican Whitmire stallions were also leopard type color patterns.

SOUTHEAST STRAINS

Most of the Colonial Spanish horses today can be traced to the above sources and came either as individual horses or as contributions of distinct strains feral (Brislawn/Holbrook, Cerbat, Pryor Mountain and Kiger), native tribes (Choctaw and Cherokee), rancher (Belsky, Romero, Jones, and Wilber-Cruce) and Mexican (Yates and Huasteca). Some other sources have contributed strains, such ss strains from the Southeast United States.
There is discussion among Colonial Spanish horse breeders as to the purity of these strains from Florida (Cracker horses) and the outer banks of the East Coast (Banker ponies).

One type of southeast horse is the Banker pony from the outer banks of Virginia and the Carolinas. These descend from Spanish horses, but in some islands have been subject to tho introductions of a variety of stallions of other breeds. A good example of this are the Chincoteague ponies.' Recently mustang stallions from out west have been added to the herds, and before that there were introductions of other horses and Shetland ponies. The
history for some of the other island populations is more vague (Hatteras, Shackelford and Ocracoke). Some of these horses are included in the Spanish Mustang Registry, but these are not numerous.    Some crossing of the Banker ponies with western horses is occurring, and to some extent this could blur the uniqueness of each population if they become totally blended. Some of the Shackelford and Ocracoke horse seem to be especially unique, others may bo less so.
In Florida there are still some remnants of the Spanish rancher horses known as Cracker horses. These used to be the favored mount of the Florida cowboys (called crackers because of the whips they used). These horses were well adapted to the environment and were useful in working the local, Spanish derived cracker cattle. In the years of the dust bowl cattle from the western drought stricken areas were moved in, and with them came the screwworm. This radically changed the sort of horse needed to work cattle since it was now necessary to rope
and hold cattle for treatment out on the range. This requires a larger horse than the original type Spanish horse, and it lost favor to the Quarter Horse which had been bred to be bigger and heavier. The influx of these western cattle therefore caused the threat to both the cracker horse and the cracker cattle, although both persist to the present day as rare remnants of once numerous types. Many of the Cracker horses are gaited, as well as commonly being black based colors. Both of these are common in Spanish horses of other regions.

REGISTRIES

The situation of the registries for the Colonial Spanish Horse can be confusing. The Spanish Mustang Registry was founded by Bob Brislawn and others. It will accept only Spanish horses; and the books are open to newly discovered horses that pass a visual inspection and consideration of the horse's origin and history. The SMR also includes the Banker ponies. The Southwest Spanish Mustang Association, begun by Gilbert Jones, is similar to the SMR and many horses are registered with both the SSMA and the SMR. The SSMA does not register banker ponies.    If there is a difference in the horses registered with the two registries it is subtle, but the SMR horses are largely of Brislawn origin (along with many others as well), while the SSMA horses tend to have more Choctaw, Cherokee, and Jones breeding in them. Both have the goal of conserving the purely Spanish Colonial type, and both have defined this broadly to include the rangier and cobbler types of horses.

The American Indian Horse Registry registers Spanish type horses as 0 (original) animals, in addition to non-Spanish types and crosses as A and AA. The AIHR diligently preserves the 0 types as a separate category, though. The Spanish Barb Breeders Association began with horses from the SMR and selected for a narrowly defined specific type.    The result of this is that offspring of registered horses were not necessarily registerable. The SBBA periodlcally plans to put other Spanish or North African Barb breeding into the horses, but this has not occurred yet and the horses are still of North American Spanish Colonial origin. These SBBA horses tend to
concentrate the Romere and Belsky bloodlines, and are therefore important as these are rare in other registries. The type they prefer tends to be the cobbler of the types.

The Kiger Meaterie Association registers Kiger mustangs. A familiar organization, the Pryor Mountain Horse Breederst is forming for tho registration and conservation of the Pryor Mountain horses.

An association for the Florida Cracker Horse has recently been started, and the documentation and registration of foundation horses are underway. These ara interesting horses, but do vary somewhat from tho other more widely accepted Spanish types. The Chickasaw Horse Association registers horses that resemble the type kept by the Chickasaw tribe. These were very popular horses in the 1800's. Most of the present horses in this association trace back to horses from the Blood Indian Reservation, and are therefore not lineal descendants of
the Chickasaw horse.

Finally, there are a number of registries for Spanish types that come from further South or from Europe. These include the Galicefio (Mexico), Paso Fine (Colonbis, CarAbbean), Peruvian Paso (Peru), CFiolio (Chile, Argentina, Uruguay), Mangalarga Marchadst (BrasAl), as well as the Lusitano (Portugal), and Andalusian (SpaAn).