To begin my participation in this blog, I will start by summarizing the history of our Lusitano horse.
I have referred to this article as a synthesis because it is unthinkable to define in detail the Lusitano breed in a simple text or even in a book, because Lusitano is simply the oldest saddle horse in the world.
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| Photo Credited to Joana Cerqueira |
PGoing back to the last glaciation, it appears that the low plains of the south-west Iberian Peninsula were spared, and here during this period there was a restricted area of survival for a small equine group that allowed a very early domestication.
The earliest records of the existence of horses in the Iberian Peninsula date back about 780,000 years, estimated from a skull discovered in archaeological excavations in the Sierra de Atapuerca in Spain. Since then many bones and engravings have been found in various places scattered all over the peninsula.
The Lusitano horse is the direct descendant of this Iberian horse that due to the isolation of this region of Europe, has survived and evolved here for about fifteen thousand years, almost completely free of crossbreeding with other breeds until very recently.
Today we have a bigger and better horse, with more weight, higher and with greater strength. All this was achieved thanks to the intelligent action of the breeders and based on a very strong genetics that fifteen thousand years of selection did not allow to destroy by two hundred years of genetic disturbance. On the contrary, our horse has taken advantage of these influences and we have now reached the production of horses of bigger size and of quality of movements, able to stand with all the specialized races, in almost all the modalities of the modern equestrian sports.
The Lusitano as a recognized and closed breed, where crosses with other breeds are not accepted, had its beginning marked with the implementation of the Genealogical Book of the Horse of the Lusitano Breed on the 25th of June of 1977, by the Portuguese Association of Breeders of the Pure Blood Lusitano Horse.
The purpose of the Book is to ensure the preservation and improvement of the Lusitanian breed by evaluating its breeders, thus contributing to the zootechnical improvement of the breed and the definition of its selection program.
And this is the brief history of our Lusitano horse. Every week I will launch an article, for next week I will continue talking about the Lusitano Breed, stay tuned and will soon have news.
The earliest records of the existence of horses in the Iberian Peninsula date back about 780,000 years, estimated from a skull discovered in archaeological excavations in the Sierra de Atapuerca in Spain. Since then many bones and engravings have been found in various places scattered all over the peninsula.
The Lusitano horse is the direct descendant of this Iberian horse that due to the isolation of this region of Europe, has survived and evolved here for about fifteen thousand years, almost completely free of crossbreeding with other breeds until very recently.
Today we have a bigger and better horse, with more weight, higher and with greater strength. All this was achieved thanks to the intelligent action of the breeders and based on a very strong genetics that fifteen thousand years of selection did not allow to destroy by two hundred years of genetic disturbance. On the contrary, our horse has taken advantage of these influences and we have now reached the production of horses of bigger size and of quality of movements, able to stand with all the specialized races, in almost all the modalities of the modern equestrian sports.
The Lusitano as a recognized and closed breed, where crosses with other breeds are not accepted, had its beginning marked with the implementation of the Genealogical Book of the Horse of the Lusitano Breed on the 25th of June of 1977, by the Portuguese Association of Breeders of the Pure Blood Lusitano Horse.
The purpose of the Book is to ensure the preservation and improvement of the Lusitanian breed by evaluating its breeders, thus contributing to the zootechnical improvement of the breed and the definition of its selection program.
And this is the brief history of our Lusitano horse. Every week I will launch an article, for next week I will continue talking about the Lusitano Breed, stay tuned and will soon have news.
