The Mangalarga Marchador is a Brazilian breed of riding horse. It is the national horse breed of Brazil, where there are more than half a million of them; it is among the most numerous breeds of riding horse in the world. It derives from cross-breeding of Portuguese Alter Real horses with local Criollo stock. It displays four gaits: the walk, the canter, and two ambling gaits, the marcha batida and the marcha picada; it does not trot.
The Lusitano, also known as the Pure Blood Lusitano or PSL, is a Portuguese horse breed. Horses were known to be present on the Iberian Peninsula as far back as 20,000 BC, and by 800 BC the region was renowned for its war horses. The fame of the horses from Lusitania goes back to the Roman Age, which attributed its speed to the influence of the West wind, who was considered capable of fertilizing the mares. When the Muslims invaded Iberia in 711 AD, they brought Arabian horses with them that were crossed with the native horses, developing a horse that became useful for war, dressage and bull fighting. The Portuguese horse was named the Lusitano, after the word Lusitania, the ancient Roman name for the region that modern Portugal occupies. There are four main breed lineages within the breed today, and characteristics differ slightly between each line.
The Criollo, or Crioulo, is the native horse of the Pampas with a reputation for long-distance endurance linked to a low basal metabolism. The breed, known for its hardiness and stamina, is popular in its home countries.
Equine conformation evaluates a horse's bone structure, musculature, and its body proportions in relation to each other. Undesirable conformation can limit the ability to perform a specific task. Although there are several faults with universal disadvantages, a horse's conformation is usually judged by what its intended use may be. Thus "form to function" is one of the first set of traits considered in judging conformation. A horse with poor form for a Grand Prix show jumper could have excellent conformation for a World Champion cutting horse, or to be a champion draft horse. Every horse has good and bad points of its conformation and many horses excel even with conformation faults.
The Mangalarga is a horse breed that was originally developed in Brazil by Francisco Gabriel Junqueira, the Baron of Alfenas, when he began breeding Alter Real stallions from Portugal with local Colonial Spanish mares on his lands in Baependi County at Minas Gerais State.
The Criollo Cubano originates from Spanish horses brought to Cuba by Diego Velázquez in 1511. There are four different breeds known as criollo: the Cubano de Paso, the Pinto Cubano, the Criollo de Trote and the Patibarcino. It is a small stout breed used by the Guajiro people.
The Nordlandshest/Lyngshest also known as the "Nordland/Lyngen horse", "nordland horse" or "Lyngen horse", is a horse breed originating in Norway. It is the smallest of the three Norwegian national horse breeds. It originated in the area surrounding the Lyngen fjord in what is now Lyngen Municipality. The horse was given the name Nordlandshest in 1968 by breeders in that area. The name change was hotly disputed by breeders in Lyngen and surrounding areas, but a compromise was later reached, and today the official name of the breed is both Nordlandshest and Lyngshest.
The Kladruber is the oldest Czech horse breed and one of the world's oldest horse breeds. It is considered very rare. The chief breeder and the keeper of the studbook is the National Stud at Kladruby nad Labem in the Czech Republic where Kladrubers have been bred for more than 400 years. Kladrubers have always been bred to be a galakarossier – a heavy type of carriage horse for the court of the House of Habsburg.
The Noriker horse, also called the Norico-Pinzgauer and historically known as the Pinzgauer horse, is a moderately heavy Austrian draught horse breed. The Noriker is considered indigenous to the central Alpine region of Europe, and is believed to have originated around the highest mountain of Austria, the Grossglockner. This region was once known as the Roman province of Noricum. At the end of the 19th century the original name Pinzgauer horse was changed to Noriker horse, due in part to the Romanophile attitude in this time.
The Pleven breed of horse is essentially Anglo-Arabian, and the breed was officially recognized in 1951. It is a competition horse with a natural jump and has free-flowing gaits.
The Carolina Marsh Tacky or Marsh Tacky is a critically endangered breed of horse, native to South Carolina. It is a member of the Colonial Spanish group of horse breeds, which also include the Florida Cracker Horse and the Banker horse of North Carolina. It is a small horse, well-adapted for use in the lowland swamps of its native South Carolina. The Marsh Tacky developed from Spanish horses brought to the South Carolina coast by Spanish explorers, settlers and traders as early as the 16th century. The horses were used by the colonists during the American Revolution, and by settlers for farm work, herding cattle and hunting throughout the breed's history.
The Tori is a horse originating in continental Estonia.
Entre Rios de Minas is a Brazilian municipality located in the state of Minas Gerais. The city belongs to the mesoregion Metropolitana de Belo Horizonte and to the microregion of Conselheiro Lafaiete.
Studbook selection is a process used in certain breeds of horses to select breeding stock. It allows a breed registry to direct the evolution of the breed towards the ideal by eliminating unhealthy or undesirable animals from the population. The removal of individuals from a population is called culling, and does not suggest killing the animal in question. Typically, culls are castrated or they and their offspring are unable to be registered.
The Neapolitan Horse, Italian: (Cavallo) Napoletano, Neapolitano or Napolitano, is a horse breed that originated in the plains between Naples and Caserta, in the Campania region of Italy, but which may have been bred throughout the Kingdom of Naples. The Neapolitan horse was frequently mentioned in literature from the 16th to the 19th centuries, and is noted for its quality. Corte wrote in 1562: "in Italy the horses of the Kingdom of Naples are greatly esteemed; [there] many fine coursers are born ... suitable for use in war and in the manège and for every service that the rider may require". The decline of the breed was noted in the early 20th century by Mascheroni (1903) and Fogliata (1908). Some sources state that by 1950, the original Neapolitan horse was deemed extinct, but its lines were incorporated into other breeds, most notably the Lipizzaner. An attempt to recreate this breed resulted in the modern breed called Napolitano.
The Frederiksborger is Denmark's oldest horse breed. They were tremendously popular throughout the Renaissance and Baroque periods and were considered luxury items. Today, the breed is rare, but has a loyal following. Stallions and mares undergo studbook inspections before being allowed to breed. They are most often chestnut with white markings.
The Vlaamperd is a South African breed of light draught or harness horse; it is also suitable for riding and is used in dressage. It was bred in the Western Cape region of South Africa in the early twentieth century, and resulted from cross-breeding of local mares with imported European stallions, particularly Friesians. The horses are usually black, though mares may be dark seal brown. A stud-book was started in 1983.
The Baroque Pinto is a Dutch horse breed of Baroque type founded in the 1950s and 1960s, using the Friesian horse, Dutch Warmblood (KWPN), German Warmblood, and other European warmblood breeds for its foundation stock. Some consider it to be a type of Friesian cross or Friesian Sporthorse, while others consider it to be its own breed.
The Orlov-Rostopchin, or Russian saddle horse, is a breed of saddle and sport horse originating in Russia. Born in the 19th century from the fusion of the breeding saddle horses of Counts Orlov and Rostopchin, it has had an eventful history. Very famous at the end of the 19th century as a dressage and cavalry horse, the breed was decimated after the First World War. It was restored by Semion Boudienny, and became known as the "Russian Saddle". Virtually extinct after the Second World War, it was unofficially recreated in the 1950s to produce the Ukrainian Saddle. Thanks to its success in dressage competitions up to international level, Russian breeders have been officially reviving it since 1978, from crosses with Trakehners. The Russian saddle still suffers from a lack of recognition.
