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California Riding Magazine • May, 2010 Spanish Sulphurs by Kimberlee Jones |
This unique breed began its journey as many old Iberian breeds began in the Americas: on Christopher Columbus’s second voyage to the New World. From the Caribbean Islands, many Spanish horses and their riders ventured to North America to conquer and discover the vast plains and mountain ranges of this amazing continent. The Sulphurs’ ancestors arrived in “New Spain” (Mexico) and finally, during the late 1700s, travelled up into California. In 1769, the California mission chains began. Starting in San Diego in 1769 and ending in Sonoma in 1823, the Spanish horse flourished in California and soon numbered in the hundreds of thousands. During this time, Indians frequently raided the vast number of pure Spanish horses within the California missions chain. One such famous raid was led by Chief Wakara and Thomas Smith in the 1840s. It is reported that they stole 3,000 horses and herded them down the Old Spanish Trail; with the Spanish recovering about half of them. This is important to this story because this is the source of the Spanish horses that are found on the Mountain Home Range in Southwest Utah. In 1997, these horses were genetically proven to be Old Spanish horses with their closest relatives being the Paso Fino and Chilean Criollo. However, unlike their Paso Fino cousins that they resemble in conformation, the Spanish Sulphur horse does not have the amble gait.
Dragon’s Sulphur Breath and Chulita Ballo Like their relatives in Spain, the Spaniards of California had superstitious beliefs regarding a horse’s color. They believed that the dun or buckskin horse was the most courageous and best working horse, while the greys favored in Spain were thought to be the least courageous and the worst working horse. Thus, the most common color of the Spanish Sulphur breed is zebra dun or grulla. More rare colors are red dun, chestnut, black and bay. Purebreds do not come in any other colors and show very little to no white. These extremely rare horses that were the pride of Old California are so rare now that it is difficult to count even 100 quality individuals in the world. A large problem with this breed is that while Dr. Cothran from Texas A&M proved that there is a Spanish herd on the Sulphur Springs Herd Management Area (HMA) on the Utah/Nevada border, he also proved that there are other distinct non-Spanish horse groups on that HMA. Many who acquire these horses are often unaware of what proper Spanish conformation looks like. Due to this, it is common to see people breeding draft type horses and/or mixed breed horses to Spanish type horses, which pollutes and destroys California’s heritage horse. It is also unknown exactly how many Spanish type horses are left on the Sulphur HMA, or if there are any there at all.
The newly created Spanish National Flag replaced the flag raised at San Diego by Gaspar de Portola and Father Junipero Serra. This flag was raised over the Monterey Presidio in 1785 where it continued to fly until the end of Spanish rule in 1822. This newly created Spanish War and Merchant Flag was chosen by Charles III in 1785 for use in the colonies as a naval and coastal fortifications flag. The goals of this article are to bring attention to California’s rare Spanish horse breed, to stir pride in my fellow Californians for their Spanish horse and to publicize the fact that this breed is on the verge of extinction through ignorance as well as intentional crossbreeding. These horses need an official, respected registry. We propose that the state of California make our rare Spanish horse breed our state horse to help save them. My fellow Sulphur owners and I entreat Californians and the Governor and Congress to help save our heritage Spanish breed by these and other means.
Running Bear Once the Spanish Sulphur is gone, so is our Spanish California horse breed. The horse of the California Vaqueros will be gone. The mount that carried men from mission to mission and helped to establish our great state will be gone. There will be no bringing them back. I would like to propose that the people of California take a vote to give distinction as well as cultural reference to the name of our Spanish horses in an effort to distinguish them from the mixed and non-Spanish horses that are also found on the Sulphur Springs HMA. Please submit proposed name(s) for our historic Spanish horse breed to spanishcaliforniahorses@yahoo.com.
Sulphur’s Corderio Riscado The most common name proposed will be used as their official breed name. Remember, the name must be of historical significance to the California heritage of these horses and can be in Spanish or English.
Author Kimberlee Jones is a supporter of www.SpanishSulphurs.org, a website devoted to the
purebred Spanish Sulphur Horse and |
