Random events and environmental changes combined with a loss of genetic diversity have an enormous influence on the fecundity and survival of small populations. Serious preservation breeders are faced with wrestling the pragmatic applications of two essential and apparently contradictory concepts . Figuring out the minimum viable population that will sustain a healthy genetic diversity […]
Tag Archives: spanish mustang
I’ve learned to pay attention to the most mild and laconic remarks made by genuine horsemen who write training manuals. One of my favorite authors, John Richard Young, noted that many stallions are spoiled and ill-mannered simply because most people do not realize that stallions in particular benefit from regular and purposeful work. Asad is […]
The Wilber Cruce strain remains one of the most acrimoniously contested strains of Colonial Spanish horses. I do regret not taking screenshots of the various explanations of the strain’s backgrounds that have been posted on line over the last decade or so. However, I have put the relevant points of the different stories together as […]
When Colonial Spanish horses were first imported to North America, horses were as ubiquitous and varied in type as cars in a modern parking lot. The recent leaps in equine genetic research has helped to increase our understanding of how those horses were perceived and bred as well as how they were built. Queen Isabella […]
I had acquired a small herd of Colonial Spanish horses from old New Mexico bloodlines and was busy schooling, breeding and promoting them when Byron Johnson, then curator of the Albuquerque Museum, contacted me in the fall of 1982. He explained that the Museum had acquired a full set of 15th century Spanish armor from […]
We had our first hard frost here in the high desert of Northern New Mexico and it made me renew my appreciation of the implications and connotations of the word acclimating when it comes to horses. Acclimating is defined as becoming accustomed to a new climate or to new conditions by responding physiologically or behaviorally […]
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 […]
I do know that my Colonial Spanish stallion’s grandsire, Chato’s Shadow, proved to carry the same mtDNA as the modern Portuguese Sorraia. The modern Sorraia strain of horses began with a handful of horses that Portugeuse horse enthusiast Ruy D’Andrade gathered from rough country along the Sorraia River in the 1930’s. So I would expect […]
I have started turning Asad out in my one acre arena. I have waited till now because he can be a real pain to catch. He has learned that he can escape by rearing and spinning away. And often does so when I reach towards him, especially f I have a rope or halter in […]
Asad arrived in need of a hoof trim. His hooves were not only over grown, they did not reflect the angles and relationships of the bones and ligaments the hoof capsule protects. All this positive change has come about simply because he has some room to move. His home-pen is roughly 40×40. And the footing […]
sara annon 