Colonial Horses in the New World - Part 1

After 1492, on subsequent voyages to the new world, the Spanish carried cattle, pigs, and horses on their ships. The horses would play an instrumental role in the Spanish plans for the Americas as the Spanish, fresh off their conquest of the Jews and Moors of Southern Spain, viewed this new world as non-Christian kingdoms, filled with savages that required conquering before assimilation into Spanish culture, specifically Catholicism. The group of Spaniard adventurers effecting the annexing of land and people would be the Conquistadores, and the conquistadores required horses that could traverse mountains, cross deserts, and survive the tropical jungles of the Americas. The horse would inspire awe and fear into the native peoples as prior to the Spanish landings, there were no horses in the new world (the Americas had probably been without the horse since the last ice age) The horses the Spanish brought to the new world were from North Africa: (the Barb) and the Iberian Peninsula: (the Andalusian, the Sorria, and the now extinct Jennet.). These horses, while serving the conquistadores splendidly, would later be bred carefully across lines to produce an animal that would become legendary and forever known as the Spanish or Indian pony.

The original presidio at Santa Fe, New Mexico was built to protect the Mission de San Miguel. One of the functions of the mission was the breeding and raising of Spanish horses. True to the Spanish system of the period, the Spanish offered native people of the area, the Pueblo, protection from their traditional enemy, the Apache. The Pueblo requirement was that they become Mission Indians (slaves). In the mid-17th century, a severe drought in the Santa Fe area helped the Pueblos to agree. Though barred from riding or owning horses, the Pueblos quickly learned how to breed and care for equine. And in 1680, with the drought over and tired of their Spanish taskmasters, the Pueblo revolted and in the process killed or drove all of the Spanish from the area. The Spanish that survived, departed quickly, and in the process left behind over 200 horses. The agricultural Peublos had no real use for horses, but their warlike enemy, the Apache saw some value in the animal. In the pre-horse days of the Americas, women and dogs moved the band or tribe. And when the Apache first obtained the horse in any numbers, they saw in the animal, a beast that could move many possessions by travois. Some accounts say the Apache actaully referred to the horse as the "Big Dog." The Apache, who were also toying with growing corn and become a fixed agri-society, never bothered early on to learn how to breed the animal or to hunt or fight from the animal's back like Plains Indians later would. Instead, they used the horse more as a conveyance. For several decades, the Apache would ride their horses to an enemy camp, dismount, fight, and then ride the animal back home.

Mike Kearby's Texas Copyright 2011