When I learned that long-time Colonial Spanish horse breeder Talley Johnson had persuaded one Captain Yates to acquire horses from the mountains 150 miles southwest of Mexico City over 50 years ago, I was intrigued. My father had moved our entire family to the city of Oaxaca, Oaxaca Mexico in December of 1968. As a […]
Tag Archives: Colonial Spanish Horses
The Livestock Conservancy has moved the Colonial Spanish horse to their Critical list because fewer than 200 foals were registered in 2021. The drop in number of registered foals is NOT due to a lack of interest in Colonial Spanish horses or to the general public’s lack of appreciation of their history, abilities or the […]
My journey to self-publishing has not been easy or straight forward. My original publisher asked me to write my series Light in the Saddle based on my blog posts where I share how I apply equine bio-mechanics in my day to day schooling. The series was pitched to me as texts for the many equine […]
I been appalled to learn how much genetic diversity among Square Horses has been irrevocably lost due to short-sighted breeding and management practices, especially here in the USA. The Bureau of Land Management has been gelding free roaming stallions for decades. Now the policy is turning towards surgically sterilizing free- roaming mares through a truly […]
Just over a year ago, I wrote a post pointing out that we could all learn a great deal about those who brought their horses to the American Southwest by looking at the DNA of horses running on the Indian reservations in the Southwest. (click here) The Navajo Reservation covers about 25,351 square miles of […]
I have been reading ‘The Empire of the Summer Moon’ chronicling the clash between the Calvinist Anglo settlers that began moving into Texas after the Louisiana Purchase and the Comanche who ruthlessly protected their territory from settlers. Gywnne’s book includes 34 pages of footnotes and sources so it is a well-documented report of the times. […]
I have written a series of explanations and acclamations about the wondrous Square Horse. Now I want to make it clear that my image of a healthy population of Colonial Spanish horses and breeders is something like a trampoline. If there is full circle with enough people holding their opinions and enough horses strongly enough, […]
During our conversations in the mid-seventies, Weldon McKinley told me that they only saw a few signs of the Spanish Colonial horses the first few years they owned the Romero ranch. They set out to catch some of D.D. Romero’s Spanish Colonial horses when they found that hoof prints and manure piles indicated that the […]
Note: a few days after this post went on-line, the SB(B)HA updated their website to reflect the information I present here on preserving entire Spanish Colonial bloodlines instead of one individual from a select few. I have not been offered a Square colt by anyone associated with the registry yet, but here is hoping that […]
The Colonial Spanish horse excelled as light horse cavalry for millennia. Yet our Colonial Spanish horses have not made a mark in modern endurance competitions. I say that is because those modern races are not actually about the horse’s endurance at all. I once asked a lowlands horse trainer who specialized in endurance competitions how […]
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