Windcross Conservancy

Preserving the Foundation Spanish Mustang

The Spanish Mustang

Spanish Mustangs.
What to look for and why.

The best bred Spanish Mustangs are those shared by other horses of Iberian descent. What is a Spanish Mustang and what is is that makes it different from the feral "BLM" horse? Simply stated through the efforts of the American Heritage Horse Association and the founders of the SMR and SSMA  to preserve the last remnants of Spanish blood horses. descendant from horses brought from Spain to the New World by the Conquistadors. These horses are descendant from the Sorraia Horse of Portugal, the Andalusian, Lusitano, Jennet, Marismeno, Garrano and the Barb horse.
Conformation
Smooth Muscling with a low tail set. and rounded hindquarters.  As with the Spanish LP and American Sorraia strains they have rafter hips and are a square uphill structured horse.  They possess a deep heart girth and neck. The neck tying in lower than seen in many modern breeds of horses.  The eyes are large and well set with slim crescent shaped nostrils which are capable of great expansion upon exertion.  Chestnuts/ergots are small or missing entirely.  Profiles are at best convex or straight with a dish face to be faulted.
Through the Centuries
Through the centuries these horses evolved .  Honed by mother nature and survival.  They thrived in the North American Wilderness.
They are not the BLM horse.  These horses survived without man for centuries.  Breeding, populating and becoming the superb horse it is today. The resulting horse is a tough, hardy  athletic, using horse. Capable of great feats of athleticism and affection for their owners.

If you desire a partner and not simply a tool this is the horse for you.

Spanish Mustang Conformation

  • Weight:Medium weight, usually between 700-1000 pounds. The body type is round, rounded outlines. The silhouette is that of which can be fit into a square. The horse is as long as it is tall. The horse is an uphill horse with withers higher than the hindquarters. Impression of the best of these horses should be immediately Iberian in presence.

  • Height is medium to be measured at the last hair of the mane at the withers. Final height should be at 6 years. Average height is 14h to 14.1 hh. Range is 13 h to 15 hands.

  • Color:The Spanish Mustang comes in all colors and patterns. The coat should be fine and short during the summer months. Luxurious mane and tails are quite common. Sparse manes and tails as in appaloosa patterns are not to be faulted.

  • Temperament: Noble, bold and very trainable. They are capable of great loyalty and are quite bonded to their owners and handlers.

  • Movement: The horse should move with great agility, elevated forward, smooth and have a great facility to carry a rider in comfort. Comparatively when one thinks of this horse: an Arabian horse moves as a gazelle does. The Iberian horse moves as a cat does.

  • Aptitude: These horses have a natural athletic ability. They are capable of great concentration but can be easily bored. They excel at many horse sports, such as dressage, carriage driving, endurance, competitive trail , rodeo, etc. They have a natural ability to work cattle.

  • Impression: Square uphill built horse

  • Muscling: Flat smooth muscling, no bunchy muscles as seen in stock horse breeds and draft horses

  • Head: Well proportioned of medium length, narrow and dry. The jaw is not too pronounced and the cheek is inclined to be longer. Eyes tend to be almond shaped, large,expressive and confident. Small pig eyes are to be faulted. The ears are of medium length, fine, narrow, expressive and in proportion to the head. Dished profiles are considered less desirable. Muzzles should never be meaty but elegant in presentation with nostrils that are slim but still capable of great expansion.

  • Back: Well defined and medium to short. The back tending towards horizontal making a smooth union between withers and loins.

  • Loins: Short, wide, muscular, slightly convex, well connected with the back and croup with which they form a continuous harmonious line.:

  • Croup: Strong and rounded in general. Rafter hips are often seen. Well balanced, slightly slanting. The length and width should be of identical proportions. The profile is convex and harmonious with the point of the hip (pin bone) . The tail should emerge smoothly in line with the croup whether it is full or sparse tail. The croup should be well rounded and not flat.

  • Shoulder: Long well laid back into the withers. It should be well muscled but smoothly muscled, not bulgy as seen in stock horses. shoulder should be about a 45 degree angle, long sloping, well laid into the withers.

  • Neck: should be deep and tied in low to the chest. It should be well arched. A ewe neck should be faulted. The neck is in proportion to the body of medium length. It should be arched and it is not unusual to see a crest especially in stallions. The junction between the neck and head is fine (throat latch) The neck is deep into the base and well inserted between the shoulders, rising up from the withers.

  • The head is of moderate length and can have a sub convex, convex and or straight profile. Dish profiles should be faulted.

  • Wither: Well defined and long, with a smooth transition from back to the neck. Always higher than the croup. No less than level with the croup. Mutton withers are to be faulted.

  • Chest: Appears narrow and importantly, what is described as "A’d up" in the front. The legs come up into a deep chest in what appears to be the outline of the capital letter A when viewed from the front of the horse. The horse should it look overly muscled and blocky as see in stock horses and those of modern breeding, or a non Iberian background

  • Ribcage:Well developed and well sprung. The rib cage and heart girth should be deep and capable of expansion. Obliquely arched into the join with the spinal column which promotes a short deep full flank.

  • Legs: The forelegs are well muscled with long lean muscling.

  • The upper arm is straight and well muscled.

  • The cannons are of moderate to long length and are rounded.

  • The fetlocks are dry, relatively big and with very little hair in summer coat.

    • The hooves are of good constitution, well defined and proportioned without being too open.

    • The line of the coronet is not very evident.

    • The buttock is short and convex.

    • The thigh is muscular but smooth and tends to be short, and is oriented in such as way as the patella or gaskin is in the same vertical line as the hip bone or point of hip.

    • The leg is slightly long from the hock which puts the point of hook in the same vertical line as the point of buttock.

    • The hocks are large, strong and dry.

    • The back legs present a picture of relatively closed angles.

    American Sorraia Mustang Project

    The American Sorraia Mustangs are Foundation Spanish Mustangs that are even more rare, containing a very special genetic history, which shares common Iberian ancestors with the Sorraia Horse of Portugal. This however does not negate the fact that this special, rare horse is 100% American made. This very special horse gained its fame as the unwanted horse of Columbus and Cortez and earned it's reputation as the hardy, eminently suitable horse of the new world. There is no discussion required that the Conquistadors brought many types of Iberian blood stock with them to the New World.
    Conquer, convert and expand is the nature of any empire or kingdom. It was soon found that certain horses were able to suffer any number of extreme climate changes and survive. From the deserts and mountains of Peru to the North American high deserts and prairies these special horses survived to populate North America.
    The American Sorraia Mustang survived the centuries to populate only the most remote areas of North America.

    This isolation has kept them the characteristically like their Iberian ancestors and Portuguese, Sorraia cousins.
    The American Sorraia Mustang is a slim, leggy horse with a long elegant head, expressive deep set eyes that do not have the bulge of pony eyes. They have medium to long ears, excellent bone, feet and gaits. Most striking are their primitive markings. They are most usually dun or grulla, may carry any number of primitive markings.
    A dorsal stripe is always present in dun or grulla horses. They may have shoulder crosses, leg barring or stripes, facial cob webbing, chest or rib hair stripes. Highly prized is the bicolored mane which looks as if the mane and tail has been frosted with a lighter color. These horses keep their feet up under them, at all times and are always alert to what is around them.

    Genetics: By definition of a breed: it is a relatively homogenous group of animals within a species, developed and maintained by humans.

    The American Sorraia Mustang is a breed that was first honed by mother nature over centuries of hardship, struggle and decimation. Today the conservative estimate is that there are less than 200 horses within the American Heritage Horse population that qualify to be called American Sorraia Mustang Horses. The American Sorraia Mustang Project will accept on occasion outstanding specimens which are bay, black, or have minimal white, or roaning if they carry the appropriate pedigrees and other than color carry correct phenotypical traits.

    White markings and roaning can be attributed to the 500+ years of development in North America. As with other similar populations around the world, white markings are atypical and should not bred for.
    Our feeling that although a specimen may have small white markings there is faulty logic to “throw the baby out with the bath-water.” That is not the preservation of the population but rather developing a “breed group” based on color. Within our project we consider not only genotype but phenotype. It is understood that a horse may share the mtDNA of, for instance, the Sorraia Horse of Portugal but still look like a draft horse. The infusion of modern outside blood then becomes readily apparent. Within many modern BLM groupings there are any number of fabulously striped and distinctive duns and grullas, however many of those population’s horses also show their modern horse influences.
    Windcross focuses its efforts on those horses that show their primitive horse structure/influence and have the ability to reproduce that type consistently. It is for that reason we accept no horses of modern feral herds, nor modern Iberian populations. There may be a single dynamic specimen in a modern BLM herd, however that horse did not drop out of the sky. There is no telling within modern feral herds where that horse came from or what it’s history is. Within our population we have at least 50 years and in many cases over 75 years of history in the lineages of our horses.

    There is no such history within modern feral herds. The horses would have to be able to reproduce themselves consistently and then once shown to be proven, be added to the a breeding project. If that was our direction, it is quite possible that the horses within the Project with pedigrees and proven replication would be lost while playing the “breed me color game.”
    The horses of the American Sorraia Mustang Project are all American Heritage Horses. They descend from the horses of the Pony Express, the vaqueros of Mexico and alta California and the Native Americans. Brave, loyal and fierce. They are a superb family horse that will go the distance with the partner of choice. We have found them to be highly bondable, willing, and intelligent. These horses like to learn and like having a job. They are a tough, hardy horse and are able to excel athletically in any discipline.