The Origins of the Lusitano Horse    by Juan Valera-Lema, Ph.D.

Archaeological evidence in the Iberian Peninsula, modern day Spain and Portugal, indicates that the origins of the Lusitano horse date back to at least 25,000 B.C. in the form of its primitive ancestor, the Sorraia breed. Cave paintings in the Iberian Peninsula dated from around 20,000 B.C. depict portraits of horses and activities related to a horse culture. Furthermore, there have been findings of small tools made of bone which were used to make rope from the hair of horses. The Sorraia is believed to have developed from crosses between native Iberian Proto Draft Horses (Equus Caballus Caballus of Western Europe) and ancient strains of Oriental/North African horses.

Looking further back into the evolution of the horse, we find that the most ancient ancestor of the horse was a small, herbivorous mammal of the genus Eohippus from the Eocene Epoch, having four-toed front feet and three-toed hind feet, which existed fifty million years ago in an area that is now the western United States. Eohippus eventually became modified into what we know as the horse. These horses then migrated from America through the land bridge connecting Alaska and Siberia and entered Asia where they established themselves and from where they disseminated to Europe and Africa. When the Spaniards arrived in the New World however, the horse had been extinct in the American continent for about 8000 years.  

JOSÉ FONTES - LUSITANOS 

Classical Dressage Training in Portugal

The Sorraia Horse