Columbus 12.X.1492 - 2021AD - the Americas' horses

 Salvete omnes,

 

today is the actual day admiral Cristobal Colon (Columbus) and his armada reached Bahamas, and on the 28th they reached Cuba. Acting on behalf of Isabel of Castilla and her husband Fernando II of Aragon, the Spanish admiral brought his small fleet to the New World and the rest is history, including the history of the horse of the Americas.

Whereas it is immaterial whether he was Genovese (native of Genoa, Italy - nota bene the Republic had been one of the principal slavers in the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea regions, dealing mostly in Slavic and other Christian slaves sold onto the Spanish and South Italian markets ) or Spanish, or Portuguese; it is very interesting that with his voyages begins the history of Eurasian and North African horses in the Americas.

 

In order to add some illustrations I am using some of the Theodor  de Bry's works of the much later period (and this prolific printmaker had been instrumental in the illustrating and spreading of the so called Spanish Black Legend or la Leyenda Negra, including Las Casas' accounts and pamphlets etc).

 

What many might have omitted in their story of the horse in the Americas is that those three beautiful Caribbean island - Cuba, Jamaica, and Santo Domingo homes to the Taino Indians were the primary horse breeding centers for the conquista of the Americas during the very  late  XV and first half of the XVI centuries.  I am not sure whether Puerto Rico was part of this breeding program at that time?

let us continue this topic -  vivat Columbus Day & Dia de la Raza...

valete

Codex Canadensis - horses et al

Salvete omnes,
Columbus Day or the day of discovery of the Americas by the Europeans is tomorrow although in the US its celebration's changes the date and actually hoovers around the 12th of October (this year it was the 8th).
On wiki commons there is a gallery of extraordinary works from circa AD 1700, showing the American Indians, flora and fauna of New France or the France held lands in North America.
The collection is called Codex Canadensis and was perhaps drawn by Luois Nicolas,  one of the Jesuit priest-missionaries in la Nouvelle-France.

Among the drawings there are two plates showing horses.
 I am not sure about the early horse history in present day  Canada.  So let's put some faith in the writing that says that the drawing shows one of the stallions sent (along with 60 fine mares) to New France in 1660s. And that from these horses more fine horses were bred in French Canada.
Canadian horse breeders association put on their webpage that the French horses were sent in 1663 and that there were 12 of them, but more shipments followed.
Perhaps this horse is a spotted one,

Dr Deb Bennett in her book Conquerrors states that this horse is of Breton horse ancestry. (page 390).
Francis Parkman in his book - Count Frontenac and New France Under Louis XIV - writes about the horses in Quebec a bit - first, that the stocking of the country with cattle, sheep and horses was done with the royal shipments and at king's expense and distributed gratuitously among the settlers, and no youngones were to be killed until there was enough stock to replenish itself (p.212-13). So perhaps horses had been arriving yearly for some time, eg one books claims period of 1665-1671, first shipment being 2 stallions and 20 mares.
Parkman writes more about the curious horse history in Quebec, namely circa 1710AD that the inhabitants engaged in horse breeding on  such large scale that this horse husbandry worried so much the royal governors (in true paternal fashion - he, he, the French absolutism) that the royal governor  proclaimed a new law forbidding the possession of more than 2 horse and 1 foal. Excess had to be removed away or killed  - presumably for meat and skin- in the ensuing harvest year (p. 279).
The second drawing shows a horse of the New Holland (New Netherland) or the Dutch colony in North America - although circa 1700 AD there were not Dutch colonies on the American continent, only in the Caribbean, and of Virginia of the Atlantic coast. Perhaps the Dutch imported those from the Spanish colonies or their holding in South America (Portuguese colonies there).

What is even more interesting those Canadian horse were being spread west and southwest from Quebec by French traders and their native trading partners. Deb Bennett wrote in her book that perhaps as early as 1675 Pierre Moreau known as La Taupine was trading horses to the Indians of the Illinois country (p. 384). Perhaps especially after the Montreal proclamation of 1710  that those French horses made their way onto edge the Great Plains, spreading from Ontario west to Saskatchewan and south to French outpost of St. Louis (present day Missouri). There they met the Spanish horses coming from the New Spain. During the XVIII century the Indian ponies and wild mustangs became a product of this mixing of Spanish and French-Canadian horses.

I think I have to get The Epic Journey of the Canadian Horse: History and Hope from Louis XIV to the Present in order to learn more
Valete!

Horse in the Americas - post AD 1492 - timeline

Salvete omnes,
part of my little research about the horse in the Americas during the Age of Conquest etc, I would like to introduce some date, although they may be subject to later corrections and or explanations.

I own some books on the horses of the America, and would love to read many more and own them too  - :) ; in this context prominently among my collections figure three books:
R.B. Cunninghame Graham, Horse of the Conquest (2004)
Deb Bennet, Conquerors, The Roots of New World Horsemanship (1998)
Robert M. Denhardt, The Horse of the Americas (1975)
Mr Denhardt, the Quarter Horse historian, provides in his book a short timeline for the horse appreance and/or establishment in the Spanish Main,Tierra Firme, and further south in the South America (including the Portuguese possessions).
So goes the list (all A.D. dates)a bit edited by my hand:
1493 - Española (little Spain) or Hispaniola (Caribbean island of Santo Domingo shared between San Domingo and Haiti)
1508 - Puerto Rico
1509-24 - Jamaica
1510 -14( Denhardt) - Vasco Nunez de Balboa beginning of conquest of Panama (Tierra Firme)
1511 - Diego Velázquez de Cuéllar beginning of conquest of Cuba
1519-1595 - Mexico
1530 - Brazil
1532 - Peru
1535 - Bolivia
1536-42 - Argentina, Southern Brazil & Paraguay
1538 - Venezuela, Colombia
1541- Chile
US side:
1521 - Ponce de Leon entrada - aborted - I am not sure if he landed his horses (got to read about this part)
1527 - Panfilo Narvaez entrada in Florida - mythical beginning of the horse in the US territories
1539-42  - Hernando de Soto entrada in Florida and the American South - mythical horse origin in Texas etc
1540-42 Coronado's 'entrada' in the Southwest US - another mythical date for the mustangs in the US
1598 -  Juan de Ońate entrada and conquest of New Mexico - beginning of the horse breeding in the continental US.

as time will show I hope to get into these dates as facts gathered from the primary/secondary sources will allow
meantime enjoy the Indian Summer

enjoy

Columbian exchange & horse in the Americas

Salve,
well, from the northern Europe of the Bronze Age lets jump to Anno Domini 1492, as today is Columbus Day/Fiesta Nacional de Espana / el Dia de la Raza  etc,  thus  another anniversary of the beginning of our modern Americas.

Incidentally, on this day we, the horse people, celebrate or should celebrate the return of equus caballus to the Americas - obviously the date is general, as the horses did not arrive AD 1492, but begun arriving with the Colon's (Columbus) second voyage of conquest and settlement  and so on, in la Hispanola(1493), Cuba(1494) and later continuing onto the mainland with the entradas.
I want to signal the new thread in my blogging - that is the Age of La Conquista (Conquest), Colonial Spanish empire and the horse in the Americas.
Slowly, probably very slowly but surely, for I really enjoy studying this period of the horse history.

We are blessed with abundant primary sources for this period, and later secondary works, and nowadays in the Age of Internet many previously inaccessible article and books can be read directly in one's computer.
I hope to corral for us all some interesting equestrian histories and art, including some of my own.

....so, to begin with this thread, I would like to bring to your attention the person of a conquistador, cavalryman and later a lay priest Juan de Castellanos who wrote and later published his epic and very long poem - Elegias de varones ilustres de Indias,; in there de Castellanos put the following verses as allegedly spoken by some conquistador companions during la entrada of Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada and the conquest of Nueva Granada (Colombia), crude words spoken upon a desperate victory over some brave native warriors in or near the valley of Opon:
[fragment can be easily translated via google translate]
Tierra buena, tierra buena,
Tierra que hara fin a nuestra pena.
Tierra de oro, tierra bastecida
Tierra para hacer perpetua casa.
Tierra con abundacia de comida,
Tierra de grandes pueblos, tierra rasa,
Tierra donde se ve gente vestida
Tierra de bendicion, clara y serena,
Tierra que hara fin a nuestra pena.
[1857 edition, p. 309-10, can be read or downloaded from archive.org]

Monument to Pizarro and his horse in Lima, Peru

For the victorious Spanish conquistadors the conquered land would be the land of prosperity and wealth, and so would the Americas prove themselves to be the greatest land for the horses.
But first the horses would replenish and grow abundant in the Caribbean pastures, before really making for the continent with the conquistadors. we could say that the American horses were born in the Caribbean in the early XVI century.
ps
I have been watching the Spanish Kingdom (Spain) troubled internal conflicts taking place in their autonomous regions, especially in Catalonia (but Pais Vasco is not far behind nor is Galicia etc).

Gaited, ambling & pacing horses

Salve,
I just received a book by Lee Ziegler titled Easy-Gaited Horses. It is not a new edition, but the 2005 one. I have not read it yet,  but I am looking for any pertinent info on different experiences with horse training as I may do some horse groundwork later on in May. Naturally, I am watching my videos with Parelli and other natural horsemanship trainers that I can get from libraries etc.
Having said that, I admit freely I am very  interested in the easy-gaited horses. I have ridden some pacing horses like the Peruvian Paso, Standardbred, Paso Fino etc.
Loved the experience ...
So today I decided to add some information form M. Horace Hayes' treatise Points of Horse: on the ambling horses from the 1893 edition

Here finally a little note Captain Hayes made about the Peruvian Paso, but I would like to point that obviously he did not know much about the Spanish Caribbean horses, nor about the ambling horses of Mexico (this is before the nightmare of the Mexican Revolution) and Central America, nor Colombia and Venezuela, where pacing horsese were in vougue, still cherished, used and bred.

enjoy