In the past it was customary to call strains of horses by the name of the race of riding
them of the locality where the horse originated.
When King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella outfitted Columbus at Cadiz on his second voyage
in 1493 for colonizing Hispanola, he had ten mares and fifteen stallions. Twenty of these
horses belonged to Lancers that had just helped drive the last Moors from Granada. The
Canary Islands supplies some horses for the New World, probably Garranos of Portuguese
blood. Columbus sailed from Cadiz through the Sea of Mares, so named because in 1425
the Portuguese had lost so many horses in this rough water while exporting them to the
Canaries. On October 2, 1493, Columbus' expedition of seventeen ships was anchored off
the Grand Canary Island with the first horses enroute to the New World. Columbus
established his own ranch on Haiti. All future expeditions carried all horses possible on the
King's orders to stock the Islands and Spain's royal studs.
Spain placed an embargo on exporting horses in 1520, although some horses were shipped
directly from Spain after the embargo. The Islands furnished practically all horses thereafter
that went to the New World.
In 1500 the first rancher to leave Espanola and settle in Cuba was the appointed governor,
Captain Diego De Velasques. He took eight horses from his ranches of Espanola where in
earlier years he had amassed a fortune by breeding horses. In 1514 he brought more horses
to Cuba and established his Bayamo Ranch, famous for highly trained pinto horses. The
conquistadors sailing to North and South America eagerly bought these horses. At least
one of these pinto horses was in Cortes' sixteen horses. Moron, one of the conquistadors,
owned it a native of Cuba. Two Spanish Ginetes were also among Cortes' horses, which
became the first horses to reach Mexico.
Cortes was born in the town of Medellin, which was in the province of Estremadura. Most of
the early conquistadors came from this province. Their horses came from the great horse
breeding area on the plains of Cordoba where the Moors bred the famed Ginete up.
In 1519 Hernando Cortes sailed from Cuba, a rebel, with 522 soldiers and sixteen horses
and foal born on ship and landed at Vera Cruz, Mexico. The ruthless Pedro De Alvarado
joined Cortes at Vera Cruz with 150 soldiers and 20 horses. The battle that followed pitted
300 Indians against each Spaniard. A year later, Diego De Velasques sent the Cuban
governor, Panfilo De Narvaes, with soldiers and 80 horses to relieve Cortes of his command.
The cagey Cortes seized these horses at this crucial time. These horses were no doubt a
large factor in the conquering of Mexico in two years time.
It has been stated that the Spaniards rode stallions only. This is very misleading.
According to the records, over one-third of Columbus' horses and almost one-third of Cortes'
horses were mares.
In 1526 Louis Vasquez de Ayllon, Justice of the Supreme Court of Santo Domingo, obtained
a patent from King Charles V of Spain to explore 2500 miles on the Atlantic coast and its
islands from Florida north to the Sable Islands ninety miles southeast of Nova Scotia.
He established an ill fated colony on the coast of Carolina near the present day Wilmington,
of five hundred men, women, and children including a number of friars and black slaves,
bringing 80 to 90 horses. From all research these were the first horses carried up the
Atlantic coast. From this date on it was customary for the Spanish, Portuguese, English,
and French explorers to place stallions and mares on these coastal islands in the hope they
would propagate and furnish mounts for future Conquistadors.
In still another expedition, Hernando Desoto landed at
Tampa Bay, Florida on May 30, 1539 with 219 head
of the finest horses that could be bought with gold he
had plundered from the Indians of Peru. One hundred
three of these horses came directly from Cordoba, Spain
where the Moors had bred the Spanish Ginete for 700
years. These Spanish Ginetes probably were the beginning
of the Choctaw and Chickasaw Indian horses. This would
explain why these Indian horses were such a superior breed
at this very early date in American history.
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