Galiceño

Then 350 years of natural selection did the shaping. DNA work at Texas A&M places the Galiceno closer to the Garrano of northern Spain than to any modern southern Spanish breed, which fits where Cortes got them.

Through the 1700s and 1800s they were pack horses and rancho horses in northern Mexico, still largely free-ranging, with people catching and feeding the ones they liked. Feral bands crossed the border on their own, and border-state ranches bought them out of Mexico, which is how the first ones reached the US.

The formal imports started in 1958, when Harvey Mecom of Liberty, Texas began bringing them north; 135 horses came in that first wave. Breeders in Tyler and Eagle Pass followed, among them Glenn Bracken and Charles Dolan, and together they formed the Galiceno Horse Breeders Association in 1959.

12 to 13.2 hands, with the Conservancy giving 600 to 800 pounds and Wikipedia 620 to 750. Black, bay and chestnut are the core colors; the Conservancy also lists cremello, palomino, lineback dun, buckskin and roan, and the US registry bars pinto.

The Spanish architecture is visible: a straight or slightly convex profile, crescent-shaped elastic nostrils, small hooked ears, a narrow deep chest, a short back and small or absent chestnuts on the legs. Many carry a smooth, fast, ground-covering running walk.

Docile and willing, rates the Conservancy, at a beginner experience level.

Their endurance and stamina made them trail horses for children and adults alike, and they still make very good pack horses.

Pleasure riding, ranch work, driving, and hunter and jumper work, along with cutting, reining and timed events.

Historically they were ranch horses, and in parts of Texas they still are.

Hay or pasture, and grain only as needed. The Conservancy calls them easy keepers on forage, adding a grain supplement for pregnancy, for work, or when the forage is poor.

They adapt. Bred for the dry north of Mexico, Galicenos have since been raised in climates from humid Florida to the Mountain West and British Columbia.

The breed has a very strong herd dynamic, and stallions can be kept together with very little aggression between them. Mares cycle through most of the year, foals usually arrive between January and September, and gestation is typically 11 months.

The Livestock Conservancy added the Galiceno to its Conservation Priority List as Critical in 2015. The US population is estimated at 200 to 300 animals with very little breeding stock; around 2005 the registry had recorded about 7,000 horses ever, with roughly 20 foals a year.

This is a breed that can be lost in plain sight: an old registry, a thin foal crop, and animals scattered across Texas. The papers are the conservation tool.

Registration runs through the Galiceno Horse Breeders Association, founded in 1959; some horses are also registered with the American Indian Horse Registry. Pinto is barred from the US book.

At 12 to 13.2 hands, size the rider honestly. And if you are breeding, every foal matters at these numbers: ask about the horse's registration and breeding history, not just its training.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.