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In history, the Spanish Mustang was among the horses that played a big role for it descends from the horses that originated from Spain as the first conquest for North and South America was going on. The colonial Spanish horse is the usual name for this horse, which records a very low population in Spain today. People today often confuse this horse with the American Mustang and they have largely domesticated it.

Spanish horses and feral horses are the parents of the American Mustang. The feral horses are those horses that started living in the wild after escaping from different western regions of the United States. The Morgans receive credit for presenting the Arabians and thoroughbreds into America in the later years of the 19th century.

The Spanish Mustangs were bred from different horses which were introduced from the Iberian Peninsula into the Caribbean during the first thirty years of the conquest of the new world.They are direct descendants therefore of those Spanish horses which had been moved from Hispanola, Cuba and other neighboring islands when the Spanish colonization took place in New Spain which is today called Mexico.

You should not confuse these horses with the horses which were common in Spain during the country's golden age as the breed is nearly extinct in Spain and people neither preserve nor breed it. The conquering of Mexico in the 16th century and onwards led to the movement of the horses to the north as they crossed the Rio Grande River. In the century that followed, the Native Indians living in the region stole and sold the horses to the tribes that lived in the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains.

People considered the Spanish horse a really small horse when it came to farming and they replaced it with bigger horses that weighed more. Most of the breeds that people introduced served the purpose of breeding with Spanish Mustang populations in order to form a heavier and stronger horse.

The introduction of the Morgans and the thoroughbreds into the feral horses aided crossbreeding efforts. In 1959, the Spanish Mustang Registry Inc. founded by two brothers sought to save the remaining Spanish Mustang horses.

The brothers used two full Spanish Mustang brothers to act as the genuine mares and foundation stallions and they began crossbreeding. Regrettably, in 1944, one of these horses managed to get away with its mares for good. People can use the Spanish Mustang in a variety of fields because it is very versatile. You can use it in shows, Polo, dressage, jumping and driving.

Certain types of Spanish Mustangs are useful for ranch work and as stock horses in performances. Some of these horses served the purpose of being cavalry mounts for the U.S.A Army throughout their battles with the Apache Indians. These horses managed the barren terrain well displaying that they were ideal for battle.

You can find Spanish Mustangs in a solid range of colors including brown, bay, black and chestnut together with the unique colors of grullo, buckskin and cremello. They are beautiful horses which have these colors at the base and have white hair or patches on top. All these create different colors such as pure white, gray, paint, along with the dark spots which are similar to those of the Appaloosa breed.