Rancho Andalucia

Conformation

Head:

The head should be of “average” size, and proportionate to the body. It should be rectangular, lean, with a straight or slightly convex profile. The ears should be mobile, medium sized, well placed and parallel with a well rounded outside curve. They should not point inwards.
The forehead should be wide, flat or slightly convex, with large, expressive triangular eyes.
The muzzle should be soft and smooth. The upper lip should be longer than the lower lip, and divided (hare’s lip).
The nostrils should be long, in the shape of an inverted comma or almond.
The jaw should be neither pronounced nor very muscular and blend into the rest of the head.

Neck:

The neck should be of average length and size. It should have and slightly arched curve on top and slightly concave curve on the bottom.
The shoulder should be long, elastic and sloping at a 45 degree angle from the line of the ground. It should have sufficient movement to allow freedom of the front legs.

Chest:

It should be proportionate, low set and muscular.

Body:

The body should be well proportionate and robust.
The withers should be unobtrusively wide and obvious.
A solid muscular back, wide, short loin, muscular and somewhat rounded and well joined to the back and the croup.

Back:

The back is located between the kidneys and the withers and here is where the impulsion created by the hindquarters is transmitted to the forehand. It should be flexible, fairly short, and sufficiently wide in proportion to the rest of the animal, and very slightly concave.

Loin:

The loin is formed by the six lumbar vertebrae, and the muscular mass that covers them, between the back and the croup. The lumbar region of the PRE is short, wide, and very sensitive to the touch.

Croup:

The croup should be of average length and width, rounded, strong, and slightly sloping. The tail set is low and placed between the buttocks.

 Breed History

Use of the P.R.E.

To complement all these conformational characteristics, the most outstanding thing about the breed is its versatility. It is due to the union of mental balance, harmony, intelligence and willingness to work. They excel in dressage because for their conformation and trainability. They have been competing at the Olympic level since 1988 and placed in the top every time against other breeds. They have also placed in international jumping competitions at the Grand Prix level.

They have a lot of cow sense, because they have been used to work cattle in their native Spain for centuries. The ability to “turn on a dime” makes them perfect mounts for the bullring. In Spain, even young children ride stallions, in Ferias and parades, around hundreds of other horses. This is possible because of their great obedience and fearlessness, which also makes them great trail horses. They are perfect carriage horses and have placed in international driving competitions against other breeds. Most of all, they make a perfect best friend.

Because this breed has been around humans for about three thousand years, they have developed a special bond with us, can understand and can communicate with us. They can read our moods and they seek our companionship and praise and bond to “their” person like dogs do..

Temperament

The Temperament is noble and docile, with a willingness and desire to please, and very intelligent. They can seem almost human at times and they form strong bonds with their owners. They love attention from their humans which makes them generally easy to train and they love showing off. Despite being docile, they have great bravery in different uses and situations, and show exuberance.

Revision

Once a horse is 3 years old, it must pass the evaluation which determines if it meets the criteria to become a breeding animal called revision. This evaluation is administered by ANCCE, the Spanish Breeders association which is the parent PRE association in the world. Once a horse passes revision, all its descendants will be registered in the Stud Book.

If they don’t pass, they retain their original papers, and are considered as PRE horses, but they lack the right to have their offspring registered..

Movement

The movement should be agile, high, with good extension, harmonic and rhythmic. They possess a predisposition for collection.

Inscription

When a foal is born, it goes through the process of inscription, which means it is DNA tested for parentage verification, a microchip is placed and all markings are recorded. It is then issued its passport.

Breed History

The exact origins of the P.R.E. are not known. It has however been praised in writings dating back to Roman times, where authors like Varrus, Columela, Virgil, Plinly and others confirm in their texts the quality of the horses found in the region we call Spain today. They were used for war, and also for the various sports which were carried out in the Great Circuses of those days.

King Philip II started to selectively breed Spanish Horses during his reign by gathering the best stallions and mares from all provinces that bordered the Guadalquivir river, which were famous for producing the best horses during that time. He built the Royal Stables in Cordoba and created the Royal Stud Farm, which eventually became the National Stud Farm.

Horses from Spain were exported to the American continents; they played an important part in its exploration, and became the basis and origin of the breeds which were subsequently bred in the Americas. Spain was in its Golden Age in Europe. The most treasured gift from a Spanish monarch was one of Spain’s magnificent horses. They became famous and played an important part in the creation of most European breeds, such as the Lipizzan, Lusitano, Kladruber, the now extinct Neapolitan, the Warmbloods, even Thoroughbreds and the Friesian Horse.

In 1913, the first official Stud Book was published in Spain, and it was called : “Caballos de Pura Raza Espanola”, Horses of Pure Spanish Breed. To this day, this is the only correct name. Other names, such as Andalusian or Iberian, do not represent the horses registered in the Spanish Stud Book. Horses known as Cartujano (Carthusian) are a bloodline within the Pure Spanish Horse breed.

There is only one single registration book which is internationally recognized and authorized to produce the official documentation for P.R.E. horses.It applies the internationally accepted controls for the breed: DNA confirmation of paternity, a complete graphic description and a microchip placement for foals, evaluation as breeding stock as a 3 year old , and a registration code (codigo #) in the Stud Book.

The Passport for the PRE is produced by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture and ANCCE, and it is the only documentation that guarantees that the animal is a Purebred Spanish Horse worldwide. It meets all requirements for identification of equines in the European Union..

Breed Name

The Pure Spanish Horse, also called P.R.E. Horse (Pura Raza Espanola) Horse.

The name “Andalusian” is sometimes interchangeably used with “Spanish Horse”. This is because in the past, horses were often named by the regions in which they were bred. The region of Andalusia was the best known for its breeding stock in the old days, hence the name, but the Spanish Horse comes from all over Spain. This is why today the only correct name for our breed is Pure Spanish Horse.

We occasionally have some of his offspring available, so please contact us now if you are interested in owning your own legend and future dream horse.He is also available at stud to a very limited number of outside mares, so please contact us if you want to create your own future champion.

Breeders of Pure Spanish Horses Since 1985