The Criollo that is the native horse of Argentina (1918), Uruguay (1923), Brazil (1932) and Paraguay, may have the best endurance of any horse breed in the world next to the Arabian. In fact, due to its low basal metabolism it may be a better long distance horse than the Arabian in prolonged races over a week in duration with no supplumental feed. The breed is most popular in its home country, and is known for its hardiness and stamina.

The word criollo originally referred to human and animal beings of purebred Spanish ancestry that were born in the Americas. With the time the significance of the word would simply come to mean native breds of the Americas.

Breed Characteristics

The Criollo is a hardy horse with a brawny and strong body. They have short, strong legs with good bone, resistant joints, low set hocks, and sound, hard feet. The long muzzled head is medium to large sized and has a straight or slightly convex profile with wide-set eyes. The croup is sloping and the hauches well-muscled, the back short with a strong loin. They have sloping, strong shoulders with muscular necks. The body is deep with a broad chest and well-sprung ribs.

The Criollo is tractable, intelligent, willing, and sensible. The Criollo horses average 1.45 m (14.1 hh). The maximum height for stallions and geldings is 1.50 m (14.3 hh) high and the minimum height is 1.38 m (13.2 hh). The maximum and minimum heights for mares are 2 cm less (approximately one inch). The line backed dun is the most popular color, but the breed may also come in bay, brown, black, chestnut, grulla, buckskin, palomino, blue or strawberry roan, gray and overo colors. Roan is a type of coat color in horses (and, occasionally, in other animals, such as dogs or cattle) that is a mixture of white hairs with a base coat of another color. ...

The breed is famous for their endurance capabilities and ability to live in harsh conditions, as their homeland has both extreme heat and cold weather. They are frugal eaters, thriving on little grass. They have good resistance to disease and are long-lived. Image File history File links Example. ...

Breed history

The breed dates back to a 1535 shipment of 100 Spanish stallions and mares to Rio de la Plata imported by Buenos Aires founder, Pedro de Mendoza. Athough it has always been claimed the Criollo has a lot of Barb influence they may also have Southern Peninsular horse, Sorraia, Garrano and Castilian genes. Buenos Aires (Good Airs in Spanish, originally Ciudad de la Santísima Trinidad y Puerto de Santa María de los Buenos Aires meaning City of the Holy Trinity and Port of Saint Mary of the Fair Winds) is the capital of Argentina and its largest city and port, as... Pedro de Mendoza (1487–1537) was a Spanish conquistador, and the first adelantado of the Río de la Plata. ...

In 1540, Indian hostility forced the Spaniards to abandon Buenos Aires and between 12-45 surviving horses were set loose. When Buenos Aires was resettled in 1580 it is estimated that the feral horse population numbered around 12,000. Since it largely reproduced in the wild the Criollo developed into an extremely hardy horse that was able to survive the extreme heat and cold, subsist with little water, and live off the dry grasses of the area. Settlers later came and started capturing horses for riding and for use as pack animals. The Native Americans had already been doing that many years before.

Throughout the 19th century a large proportion of the horses were crossed with imported European Throughbred, coach and draft horse stallions and a larger, coarser, long striding multi-purpose cart and saddle horse resulted. However, the crossbreeding nearly ruined the native Spanish horse type. In 1918, the Argentine breeders decided to create a purebred Criollos registry. The breeder's association was formed in 1923. Much infighting occurred between the bands of Emilio Solanet and Enrique Crotto as the first promoted the Asian type Criollo and the latter the taller African type with a coarse convex head, fallen croup and thinner mane and tail.

It was not until 1934 that Dr. Solanet was able to firmly take control of the breeders association and set a new goal for the breed as a shorter more compact stock horse which emulated the Chilean Horse breed he so much admired. In 1938, 70% of the registered Criollos were culled because they did not posses the phenotype aspired by Dr. Solanet and his followers. The new breed standard which he had written in 1928 was finally made avaliable to the public now that he was assured the breeders were more united in their breed objectives. It would not be until 1957 that the registry was closed for Argentine native breds but the registry has remained open for the Chilean Horse breed that has been so influential in giving shape to the Criollo as a better stock horse. Nevertheless, the breed maintains its own identity in a taller, leggier and squarer body conformation with a more angular hock that gives it the long stride it requires to cover the great distances in the flat Argentine plains (known as "pampas"). The modern Criollo head prefers with a straight facial profile and a shorter muzzle and longer ears than is typical in the Chilean Horse breed. The horse breed known as Chilean Horse is virtually unknown outside of the meridional South America despite being the oldest registered native American breed, the oldest registered breed of Iberian origin, the oldest registered horse breed in South America and the oldest registered stock horse breed in the Western Hemisphere. ... The horse breed known as Chilean Horse is virtually unknown outside of the meridional South America despite being the oldest registered native American breed, the oldest registered breed of Iberian origin, the oldest registered horse breed in South America and the oldest registered stock horse breed in the Western Hemisphere. ... The horse breed known as Chilean Horse is virtually unknown outside of the meridional South America despite being the oldest registered native American breed, the oldest registered breed of Iberian origin, the oldest registered horse breed in South America and the oldest registered stock horse breed in the Western Hemisphere. ...

The breeders implemented rigorous endurance tests to help evaluate horses for breeding. In these events known as "La Marcha" the horses ride over a 750 km (466 mi) course to be completed in a 75-hour split in 14 days. No supplemental feed is allowed: the horses may only eat the grass at the side of the road. At the end of the day, a veterinarian checks the horses. The horses are required to carry heavy loads of 245 lb (110 kg) on their backs.

Today, the horse is used mainly as a working cow horse, but is also a pleasure and trail horse and has contributed a great deal to the Argentine polo pony (Criollo/Thoroughbred crosses make excellent polo ponies). They are also excellent rodeo and endurance horses. The national rodeo competition is known as "paleteada" and it involves a paired team of horses and riders that aproach a steer from both sides at a full run. The steer is sandwiched in between the two horses that lean into the bovine, practically carrying it down a 60 m long delineated path which the horses must not step out of during the defined trajectory. It is an amazing demonstration of control that can literally pick up a steer and place it wherever it needs to be. Playing polo Polo (also known as Chogân) is a team game played on a field with one goal for each team. ... The Thoroughbred is a horse breed developed in 18th century England when English mares were bred with imported Arabian stallions to create a distance racer. ... Endurance riding is an extremely strenuous form of horse racing, requiring the horse to complete, at the top levels, up to 100 miles. ...

One example of the breed's fantastic endurance was the ride made by the Swiss rider Professor Aimé Félix Tschiffely (1894-1954) in 1925-28. Tschiffely took two Criollos, 16-year-old Mancha and 15-year-old Gato, on a 13,350 mile (21,500 km) trek from Buenos Aires to New York, crossing 5,000 m (16,400 ft) a.s.l. snow-capped mountains, the world's driest desert, the thickest tropical jungles and riding in all types of weather. Alternating the riding and packing between the two horses, the trio took three years to finish the trip. Although Prof. Tschiffely went through many hardships on the trip including a bout of malaria, the horses did wonderfully in the wide array of extreme topographies and climates. Gato lived to be 36, Mancha lived to be 40 living out the last years of their life as celebrities in La estancia El Cardal (El Cardal Ranch), the breeding establishment of the man most credited for developing of the Criollo breed, Dr. Emilio Solanet. Aimé Félix Tschiffely (b. ...