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A look at some Spanish Horse Strains-1991
By: Dr. Phillip Sponenberg, DVM, PhD.
I had a good opportunity to see some great countryside, horses, and good friends this spring. This sparked a good many thoughts about Spanish horses, what they are, and where they are headed.
The trip involved both Spanish cattle (Texas Longhorns) and Spanish Horses (Mustangs of various strains). I am encouraged by the progress of the Spanish Horse breeders in keeping various lines going, but only wish that the Longhorn breeders were as dedicated. Conserving these old lines is very important, and to the extent they are changed to meet present fads the old lines will disappear.
First Stop
The first stop on the trip was to see the Choctaw and Cherokee ponies of Bryant and Darlene Rickman. These two strains are being saved from the brink of extinction. I was very encouraged to see the progress being made here. Not only do the horses look good, but there is a wide variety of color left that was typical of the Cherokee and Choctaw horses.
These horses are of special interest since they are one of the easternmost strains of Spanish horses and are fairly unrelated to western strains. I was especially pleased to see some excellent quality among the horses.
Each strain of mustangs has some excellent animals in it, some that are so so, and some that I do not prefer. This is one of the exciting aspects of animal breeding, and gives breeders an all important job to do.
Especially with conservation breeding even the less desirable animals have an important role in a breeding program, since they can be wisely bred and the next generation improved while retaining some of the genetic variations that they have. Not using these individuals almost dooms a breeding program.
So, in every strain each horse, whatever the quality, has a role to play. This is especially true of the female side, while the males generally do need to be consistently excellent.
Fortunately in both the Choctaw and Cherokee lines the horses are of good to excellent quality, and the job of keeping the strain strong will be fairly assured of success.
The Choctaw horses, especially, have been very important in the overall breeding of the Spanish type horse. These horses cross exceedingly well with other strains, and some of half or three quarters Choctaw horses are among the finest I have ever seen.
They seem to nick especially nicely with Mexican and Cherokee breeding. One reason for keeping these strains separate is to be able to develop themselves nicely made horses.
These strains are very rare now, but the Rickmans are working to conserve these.
Cruce Horses
We also took a look at the Cruce horses that Sisty Monroe, Bob Myers, and Tally Johnson have.
The excellent individuals of this line are very, very nice. This includes both mares and stallions, with some of the stallions being especially nice. Some of the mares are rather plain, and do not have the eye appeal that the usual Spanish horse has.
The amazing thing about the Cruce horses is that excellent individuals still exist, and that there are so many of them.
These horses ranged on a rough area, and for years horses have been taken out either legally or illegally.
Now that this line is being deliberately bred for quality the overall excellence of the strain should come out clearly.
Yates Lines
Another line of interest that we saw was the Yates line of horses owned by Tally and Bessie Johnson. These are dun Mexican horses, and are typical Mexican style Spanish cow ponies. They are still being raised as a unique family of Spanish horses.
Interestingly, we also found another Yates type horse in South Texas on this trip, and may be able to broaden the genetic base by suing this horse.
The Johnsons have done an excellent job with these. Bessie also does an excellent job with her Choctaw horses, to say nothing of the biscuits, cobbler, and hot peppers.
An amazing family with amazing horses.