Argentinean Horse

In South America, horses are bred and distributed throughout the continent, Central America and North America for various uses.  They are also used for hard work in the countryside, or for people to enjoy their leisure time.  The following is a brief history of its origins in Argentina.

In prehistoric times, during the Pleistocene there were native horses in almost every American country, the area corresponding to Argentina was particularly rich in these “paleocaballos” (mainly hipiddiones), however the arrival of humans 11,000 years ago appears to have been a factor (with disease) to the total extinction of the native American horses.  This is why the arrival of Europeans (late fifteenth century and early sixteenth century) had no memory or knowledge of those first horses whose fossils still remain.
The horses are descended from Andalusian horses brought by Spanish conquistadors to the Americas. Some of them have achieved freedom, and acquired characteristics through natural selection, with exposure to a wild environment.

During the conquest, the Spanish horses were considered the best in Europe, and we must bear in mind that this training was a very important influence on the horses of the Moors in particular those whose horses would also have been the ancestral Light Arabian horses.

In selecting horses for expeditions to America, they were cared for very well and developed to select the best specimens, not only because the horses need to survive, but also to help them in their difficult task.   Until they were reproduced in abundance, the horses brought to America had a very high cost due to its great practical value and scarcity tactics and initial.

The horses entered Argentina via Peru, the port of Buenos Aires and Brazil. But the flow introduced by Buenos Aires is considered the most important, brought by Pedro de Mendoza who founded the city of Buenos Aires in 1536.
Later, Mendoza had to leave Buenos Aires and he felt obliged to defend the native peoples, so let the horses loose, once reproduced prodigiously through the prairies and grasslands biome and temperate climate typical of the Humid Pampa.  When they arrived at Juan de Garay, in 1580 from River Plate the horses felt “fantastic” (abundant and of excellent quality).    Only the strongest survived and reproduced, learning to defend themselves from dangers such as pumas and other predators, further supporting climate extremes.

Aboriginal peoples were incredibly adaptable to the “monster invader,” first learned to eat meat, and then achieved a symbiotic relationship with the horse.  From the beginning of the sixteenth century horses were free and were reproduced en masse.  These horses became considered “Realengo,” that is held by the Spanish crown, although in practice they were used by any person as a free-peasant then gauchos.  They made the horse one of their main means of livelihood and a symbol of prestige (pingo is one of the names given to the horse and the penis).

As for the Indians, especially in the south, it was common to consume meat as a delicacy. Moreover some of the characteristics of some Creole horses had to assume they may possess a wealth asinine because of a genetic cross with an incidental, exceptionally fertile mule (the territory was Argentina center where mass rearing of mules took place to transport precious minerals from the high mountain regions of Peru).

Wars of Independence

In the War of Independence Argentina horses were used almost exclusively in Creole, because until then the arrival of other races from Europe was very low.
Almost lost

After independence in 1816, due to the increasing Europeanization in all areas of life in Argentina, the horses were neglected and the mestizo race was bred with foreign blood in the belief that it was better.  Horses were faster and taller, but all at the expense of resistance to fatigue and extreme conditions.  It seemed that the end had come for these noble horses.

Recovery

There was a group loyal to the skills of horses, who kept their animals without mixed breeding, with features learned from 400 years of natural selection.  In the early twentieth century however, there were still wild horses in Patagonia, and also near Buenos Aires, in the relic and Ventania Tandilia.

The recovery of horses with scientific selection was carried out by the leader Emilio Solanet.   A group of breeders founded the Breeders Association Criollos Horses, the final race making the horses versatile, economic, rustic and docile.   His two most famous examples, Mancha and Gato, toured the American continent from Buenos Aires to New York, led by Aime F. Tschiffelly, breaking records for distance and height.