07/29/2025
A great article on the iberian horse and its all around value...
Andalusians and Iberians. Are they really a "cheat" horse to results?
There is a noxious w**d growing amongst some parts of the performance horse community. It is prejudice. Well, prejudice period. Against draft horses, ponies... in fact anything except a TB or a WB or whatever sport horse they are on. But I digress.
There is prejudice against Iberians.
In the same breath, some will say that they are easy to collect. That it is almost cheating. Pick up a rein, and voila, they are round and in a nice shape for IG.
Then immediately say that they are leg movers, are not through in the body, on the forehand etc etc.
I have been working with, caring for, training and riding Iberians for most of my career. Though my experience ranges from Arabians, to KWPN, to Clydesdales and Shires, to Mustangs and beyond. When I come home, I am with Spanish horses. It is one of my primary motivators to live in, and remain in Spain. They have the best horses in the world. Centuries of selective, quality breeding.
For anyone not prejudiced about Iberians, who want a fast run down on why they are so magical, here is my dot point thesis on Spanish horses based on what I know so far.
1. The are "working horses", not show horses. Historically, they were not locked in gilded cages like Palfreys, to be paraded around the estate by the Lord and Lady on weekends, or going on hunts. Iberians worked the fields, pulled the carts and plows, but also, went to war, taught the children how to ride, lived in the stable inside the house, and on the weekends... went to bullfights. They are more similar to AQH than they are to a TB. They are functional, high drive, deeply talented animals that have the potential to both work long days on laborious tasks, but also, canter pirouette to save their life. This unique combination of talents must be respected at all times, and fed into.
2. Spanish Horses make lameness look spectacular. Do not let the flash, the round necks fool you. Developing an eye for a lame Spanish horse is a developed skill, like learning to taste the difference between a Roble and a Rioja. A lame Spanish Horse is capable of impressing you, still. This is why they often have catastrophic injuries, or are retired young, when in the wrong hands. Because they will allure you into thinking you can continue pushing them. But actually, they are struggling, and their heart for work is over-compensating.
3. You have to ride them on the forehand. A lot. Yup. Open them up. Horizontal balance. And teach them how to push their forelimbs INTO the floor. If you do not, they will elevate their front end action before their LS joint is biomechanically ready for it. It looks gorgeous. But you will blow out their spine, or their suspensories. I know this, because I was rehomed a high profile horse for this very reason. And have rehabbed not only him, but dozens and dozens before him. Ride them on the forehand, gently and lightly. Not INTO the forehand. ON the forehand, teaching them that their front feet can touch grass, and use the floor, use gravity to their advantage. Once they have pushing power in their shoulder, only then can you slowly lift them up and back.
4. Today, their breeding is in decline, especially in populations outside of Spain. Anytime I see a PRE of a fancy colour, cremello, buckskin etc... I have to wonder if their owners know, that 20-30 years ago their Pura Raza Español would have been called simply a Cruzado. It is the difference between a papers AQH and a Grade QH. Until ANCCE took over the administration of the PRE Stud Book in 2007 from the Spanish Armed Forces, the Spanish armed forces managed and regulated the breeding of all Andalucian horses worldwide. This was a centuries old tradition, the military, and the monks bred the Spanish horse we know and love. The ANCCEE took over, ostensibly not to de-regulate, but to modernize.
And we all know what happens when breeding attempted to modernize.
They now allowed colour to register as a Pura Raza Español. Whereas the military allowed only Bay, Black and Grey (I might be wrong about the black). They played with leg action. They bred a bunch of spindley legged, dishing horses and called them PRE's instead of Cruzado's. They sent a bunch of coloured, and inferior stock overseas and they got a poor reputation as weak bodied and lame horses.
The military studs kept Arabian and Percheron studs as part of their PRE breeding. If they got too heavy, they added Arabian. Got too light, added Percheron. My Sureño de Centurion, whose parents are both national champions in dressage and morphology, looks half Percheron. This is correct.
But since 2007, in my opinion the quality of the PRE became hit and miss. They tried to breed them taller to enter them into the Sport Horse Market where demand for 17HH minimum pushed the traditionally smaller PRE to its extreme examples. They should not be taller than 16.3HH, traditionally. You can still find beautiful, classical examples of the breed in Spain and beyond, and the military studs are still open. But you got to know where to look.
5. If you import from Spain a horse older than 2, they will likely have baggage. I love my adopted home country and I am deep into the naturalisation process learning the culture and the language. And here they get the foaling and raising of c**ts and fillies until age 2, wholesale, generally, spot on. At 2, the problems start. Invariably, at 2.5 they are troubled. Serretas, excessive grain and high protein feed, abominable living conditions and high pressure training on immature bodies fry the circuits of otherwise extremely resistant and neurologically sound animals. And my business has often been a revolving door of owners of Iberians overseas, who spent years agonising over their physical, mental and emotional rehabilitation the early training often puts onto these horses. I say this factually, not in criticism. And this is something I am running towards naturalisation so I could, maybe, help move the needle on this subject.
6. Their hooves grow often primitive, and upright like a mule. Your trimmer and farrier should remember, they will have blood vessels where typically there would be done. And you will need to carefully deal with their strong heels.
There, that is my rapid fire dot point thesis of the essential points of the Iberians I love so much, without much nuance, and with too many generalisations. But I hope it helps somebody understand their Spanish unicorn better.
