The Origin of the Lusitano Horse

For centuries horses have been breed by royalty and wealthy landlords on the Iberian Peninsula. Each breeder had his vision of what his beautiful horses should look like and tried sometimes by more, sometimes by less careful line breeding to "fix" the genes of his ideal horse. Stallions that were considered the most beautiful and useful were selected for reproduction. They were than breed with their own daughters and cousins to achieve genetic fixation. However throughout history royalty and warlords have influenced the breeding by imposing that breeders had to include horses of different origin into their breed stock to get the stronger and bigger horses. Horses that were required for the armies. The monks of the Cartuja in Jerez have for centuries refused to accept any orders or instructions that affected their breeding. The monks of the Cartuja have continued to breed according to their own standards for long periods of time even in secrecy. Reportedly the Cartuja monks already breed horses in the middle of the 15th century. In the middle of the 18th century the Cartuja monks took over the breeding stock of Don Pedro Picado to settle his debts. Don Pedro had about 50 years earlier taken over most of the breeding stock of the Zamoras. The “Zamoranos” were at the time famous for their outstanding qualities. It was about the middle of the 18th century that the Duke of Bragança, the King of Portugal at the time bought 100 broodmare, 100 two to three year old mares and 5 stallions from the monastery of the Cartuja. These horses went to the Villa de Portel in Bragança, Northern Portugal and this was the start of the Alter Real stud. Few years later the Stud was moved to Alter do Chão in the Alentejo were it still remains today. We will get back to the Alter Real later but first a bit more about the Cartujanos.

           The brand of                           The Bocado brand of                              The Bocado brand of
            the Cartuja                    Don Pedro Jose Zapata y Caro               Don Vincente Romero y Garcia

Early in the 19th century the Cartuja monks were forced to dispose of their breeding stock and many of the excellent horses went to breeders in the Jerez region a.o. to Don Pedro Jose Zapata. It was the Zapata stud that owned the famous “Bocado” brand. In the middle of the 19th century Don Vincente Romero y Garcia acquired a substantial part of Zapatas horses and the Bocado brand. It was also Don Vincente Romero who introduced the “c” in the Bocado brand. Don Vincente used both brands next to each other. The Bocado brand later changed hands many times. It was a.o. owned by Hermanos Dominguez, Francesco Chica, the Domecqs, de Terry's and others. It is now owned by the Spanish government.

Meanwhile in Portugal, after Napoleon had taken the best horses and a lot of northern European and Arabian horses had been crossed in the Alter Real is almost totally destroyed. The Portuguese Army that was running the stud at the time auctioned their last two Alter Real stallions in the 1920s.

It was at this time that Dr. Ruy d’Andrade revitalized the Alter Real. He collected Alter Real breeding stock from farmers in Portugal and brought once again a number of horses from Jerez to Portugal. These horses came from Don Vincente Romero who owned the Bocado brand at the time. Of course these horses were no longer the same as the older Cartujanos that had been brought to Portugal. The Zapatas and Don Vincente had in the meantime crossed the old Cartuja breeding stock with their own. It has been said however that today’s Alter Real horses look more like the old Royal Alters of the 18th century than the Alters of the beginning of the 20th century. It appears that Dr. Ruy d’Andrade had successfully line breed the collected Alter Real stock with the three remaining Alter stallions Regedor, Vigilante and Marialva II to achieve this. Today we find the names of the three foundation stallions multiple times in de pedigree of every Alter Real horse. CHIRON's own research shows that the breeding program at Alter Real has since the revitalization by Dr. Ruy d’Andrade been professionally managed and that contrary to popular believe inbreeding percentages in the Alter Real population are relatively low when compared with the Veiga and the Andrade blood lines.

Around 1940 Dr. Ruy d’Andrade also bought the stallion Principe VIII from Don Francisco Chica who at the time owned the Bocado brand. Principe VIII was brought to Portugal and became the foundation stallion of the Andrade line. Principe VIII who appears multiple times in the pedigree of every Andrade horse today carried the Bocado brand.

The Portuguese Veiga line is much older than the Andrade line and I have yet been unable to find all about the origin of the Veigas. The stallion Agareno is the foundation stallion of the Veiga line according to the Portuguese Studbook. Long before the days of Agareno the Veiga ancestors have however used Alter stallions, donated to loyal allies by the King of Portugal in their breeding program. My own research suggests that Agareno carries a.o. genetic material of the stallion Fehran. This Arabian stallion also appears in the pedigree of the Alter Real stallion Marialva II. The evidence is yet fragile as many horses carried the same name at the time but historically the link could make sense. This would mean that also the Veiga line has at least part of it’s origin in the Bocado line. However more important today is that Veiga after pushing line breeding with its foundation stallion Agareno to its limits has used the Andrade stallion Firme to refresh blood. A daring and brilliantly decision as it turned out. The now famous Veiga horses Nilo, Novilheiro and Opus 72 are all sons of the Andrade stallion Firme who is in turn son of Bocado line stallion Principe VIII.

The Andrade stud has also used Veiga horses in their breeding program. The stallion Trovador II and several mares of Veiga origin have been introduced into the Andrade line. This has however had far less impact and has not lead to the spectacular breeding results that the introduction of the Andrade stallion Firme in the Veiga line has brought. Here it should be noted that at the time the Veiga blood was introduced the Andrade line was not as inbred as the Veiga line was at the time Firme was introduced.

For long there was only one studbook for Lusitano and Andalusian (PRE) horses. After the introduction or rather the separation of the Portuguese Studbook in the early 60s the Portuguese kept their studbook "open" and have continued to accept new PRE stallions into their studbook. Review of the Lusitano studbook shows that virtually all PRE stallions that were brought into the Lusitano studbook originated from the Bocado line.

So what do we have? In Lusitano world we differentiate mainly between the three bloodlines Alter Real, Veiga and Andrade as these three lines represent by far most for the individuals in the population. The current Alter Real and Veiga lines would probably be the oldest lineage and the Andrade the youngest. All three appear to originate at least in part from the same genetic (Cartuja/Bocado) sources in the Jerez region. Veiga is older in Portugal than Andrade and also originates at least in part from the Jerez region. Most Lusitano horses have both Veiga and Andrade blood in very varying proportions. All, including the Alter Real stud have used a number of “outside” stallions in their breeding programs both from PRE origin and from Portuguese breeders. The Andrade stallion Vidago, a grandson of Principe VIII and the Quina stallion Xaquiro, a mix of Veiga, Alter Real and Bocado blood served a.o. at the Alter Real stud. The Veiga stallion Trovador II served at the Andrade stud and the Andrade stallion Firme served at the Veiga stud.

So much for pure blood lines. At some point in time I will address the issue of pure blood lines and the desirability of pure bloodlines but that requires more research and careful definition of a lot of issues.

For now it's still worth mentioning that some smaller Portuguese breeders have very successfully experimented with crosses between the main bloodlines. One example out of many is the already mentioned line of Manuel Quina. In his breeding program Quina very successfully crossed Alter Real and Veiga bloodlines. The amongst Lusitano breeders highly valued stallions Xaquiro, Xique-Xique and Visqueiro are all from Quina lineage.

To be continued.....