During Spain's 700 years of Moorish domination, the breed remained essentially the same. Occasional crossing with fresh Arab and Oriental blood by the breeders of Cordoba and Granada assured that the fleetness and agility so prized by the Arabs remained qualities inherent in the stock. The Spanish began to export the horses after Spain rid itself of Moorish rule. The most notable stud farms were established in Italy and Frederiksborg, Denmark. The Danes produced excellent stock from the Spanish progenitors; the Italian "Neapolitan" bloodline became famous in Europe.
Archduke Maximilian, later Emperor of Austria, began breeding Spanish horses there about 1562. Eighteen years later, Archduke Karl, ruler of four Austrian provinces, established a royal stud farm in Lipizza, located in the hills of Karst, near Trieste.
Fresh Spanish stock was systematically added to the blood line at intervals to maintain the strength of the breed. Oriental stallions were used occasionally for the same purpose. In the 17th and 18th centuries, horses from the northern Italian stud farm at Polesnia and the highly regarded Neapolitan strain were brought to Lipizza to mingle with the resident stock and the descendants of the original Spanish line out of Denmark and Germany.
From 1809 to 1815 they lived in the lowlands of the TISZA River, which flows into the Danube. The land was hard on them. It took several years and an infusion of fresh blood to recapture the vitality and high standard of the line. In May of 1915, the Lipizzans were split up. One group was taken to Laxenburg, near Vienna, and the other to Kladrub.
The fall of the Austrian House of HABSBURG in 1918 brought about the break up of the old Austrian Empire. Lipizza became a part of Italy. The Italian and Austrian governments divided the Lipizzaner herd equally. The Republic of Austria took their horses to Piber in Steiermark. Piber, a privately owned stud farm, was founded in 1798 to breed calvary mounts for the army. In 1858, it became a government breeding farm and produced Lipizzans of another and lighter strain for stud purposes in the provinces.
http://www.lipizzaner.com/
One example of the Spanish horse's influence is the American Quarter horse, whose development traces from the Colonial Short Horse-an animal of Spanish heritage-so named because it was unbeatable in short-distance races. The Short Horse was also crossed with a number of English Thoroughbreds when they were imported to what is now the United States. This mixing of blood produced most of the modern North American breeds, including the Quarter Horse, Morgan, American Saddlebred and the original American Thoroughbred. Ironically, the very breeds that the Andalusian spawned were to be his near undoing. Size became the fad in Europe. The Neapolitan, the Norman and the English Thoroughbred grew in popularity and in numbers until finally, they surpassed the position of the Spanish horse. The Andalusian breed was all but extinct in all areas except Spain and Portugal, where it became known as the Lusitano.
Then tragically, the plague followed by famine, nearly pushed the breed into oblivion. Fortunately, the horses survived in a few mountainous areas of Spain, notably at the Carthusian Monastery. The animals of this herd are today known as the Carthusians, the finest of the Spanish horses. In order to conserve the rare horses for breeding, the government of Spain placed an embargo on their export. For more than 100 years, the Andalusian was virtually unseen by the rest of the world. Then in the 1960's the export ban was lifted.
Now the popularity of the Andalusian horse is once again on the rise. Horsemen are rediscovering the traits that made the Andalusian the most sought-after horse in the world; the strength, agility, beauty, pride and docility bred for centuries into the Spanish horse. The Spanish stallions are unique because they are fiery and tractable.
This seeming contradiction stems from the edict of King Ferdinand of Spain, who enforced the old law that gentlemen must ride only stallions. This severe edict must have resulted in a few Spanish grandees being dumped on their heads, until horsemen began to breed their steeds for good temperament, knowing that they would not only have to ride stallions, but they would also be selling saddle stallions for a living.
The temperament, agility and strength of the Andalusian are again being sought after for dressage purposes. Dressage and the Spanish horse were almost synonymous in the beginning. The Spanish horse was so strong and agile that he could be trained to do amazing things, and the techniques that are now recognized as modern dressage were actually methods used to train the superior war-horses.
The Andalusian was so adept at this training that nearly all of the oldest and most famous riding schools started with Spanish horses. The best example of this is the Spanish Riding School in Austria, thus named for the Spanish horses that it used. The Lipizzan breed is an ancestor to the Andalusian, being almost totally of Spanish blood. As recently as 1968, a four-year-old stallion of the Carthusian line of the Andalusian was imported to rejuvenate the present line of Lipizzans in Austria.
Although less popular today among dressage horse breeders, the Spanish Andalusian is still a superior dressage mount. Occasionally overlooked by modern dressage riders, who consider him a "circus horse," the Andalusian significantly contributed to the Thoroughbred and most of the other popular European dressage breeds.
Nonetheless, the Andalusian is proving that he is not only suitable, but perhaps the best choice for the dressage arena. The list of the breed's winnings and the spread of its fame is limited only by its rarity. The Andalusian is excelling in other areas as American horsemen discover his great level of versatility. As a Western-riding horse, his skills are surpassed only by his grandchild-the Quarter Horse. However, when it comes to agility and the ability to work cattle, there is none better than the Andalusian. After all, he has been through countless battles with wild and deadly Iberian bulls.
For well over 1,000 years, he has worked at close quarters with these bulls, both in and out of the bullfighting arena. With death only inches away, he has had to carry his rider close enough to a maddened bull to place a rose between his horns and then whisk away before being gored. When not in the arena, he was the only horse quick enough to work the unpredictable and dangerous herds.
As a show and parade horse, the Andalusian's trademark movements, combined with his noble appearance with a long, lush mane and tail, make him a winner. His shiny gray or white coat glistens as he moves with all of the pride and style bequeathed to him by his ancestors who carried Caesars and kings in their day of triumph and splendor.
His strength and boldness make him a very good hunter and jumper. His agility and endurance make him ideal for trail riding cross-country. Generally, the Andalusian is a horse for all seasons and for all sports, even though he is a relative newcomer to the United States. Not until 1965 were the first Andalusians registered in this country. Today, their numbers are only about 700, making them precious as gold to their owners.
The Friesian horse is the only horse breed native to the Netherlands where the Friesian has been known since as far back as the 13th century. At the start of the Christian era, the Friesian was used in battle1 and Friesian troops were documented in Britannia. In the 4th century, English writer Anthony Dent1 wrote about the presence of Friesian troops at Carlisle and their horses. Both cases probably involve Friesian mercenaries mounted on Friesian stallions. Anthony Dent and other writers indicate that the Friesian horse is the ancestor of both the British Shire breed and the Fell pony.
Since the 16th century, Friesians have been in Neaples. Jan van der Straat's 1568 painting shows "Phryso" owned by Don Juan from Austria.
In the 11th century, Willem de Veroveraar1 used horses that had a remarkable resemblance to the Friesian breed. From this period, there are many illustrations of knights riding Friesian-looking horses.
During the crusades and later, in the course of the Eighty Years’ War, it is very probable that the Friesian breed was crossed with Arabian and Andalusian horses.
The first written evidence of use of the name “Friesian horse” was an announcement in 1544 that German Elector Johann Friedrich von Sachsen came to the Reichstag in Spiers riding a Friesian stallion.3 Three years later, he rode the stallion in the Battle of Muhlberg and was recognised from afar by Emperor Charles V. Also an etching dating from 1568 of the stallion Phryso1 belonging to Don Juan of Austria in Napels is very well known. During the 17th century, the Friesian horse was well represented at the various riding schools where the haut école of equitation was practised.
Use of the Friesian horse, however, became increasingly limited to the current Dutch province of Friesland over the 18th and 19th centuries. Towards the end of the 19th century, the presence of the Friesian horse in the countryside of Friesland became an expression of the owner’s wealth with the breed used mostly to bring upper-class farmers to church. The horse was additionally used for entertainment in the form of ridden short-track trotting races.2 In these races, the horse was traditionally ridden with just a small orange blanket on its back. During this period, the Friesian horse was very likely used in the breeding of the Orlov as well as American trotters.
