Alter Real Horse
The ALTER-REAL horse has experienced a more turbulent history than other of the Iberian breeds, and has also suffered more from ill-advised cross-breeding experiments. That it survives is due to the re-introduction of the Andalucian blood upon which it was founded in 1748, when 300 Andalucian mares were imported from around Jerez de la Frontera in Spain.
Although the Alter-Real is indubitably Iberian, it retains its individuality among the Iberian breeds and is especially suited to the Haute Ecole, which was its original function. Today, the classical Alter-Real is preserved in the performances given by the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art.
THE ALTER-REAL
The Alter-Real breed takes its name from the small town of Alter do Chao, in the Portuguese province of Alentejo where it was first bred at the royal Vila de Portel stud in 1348. Real is Portuguese for "royal", and the purpose of the stud was to provide the royal stables at Lisbon with horses suitable for classical equitation, a pursuit followed enthusiastically by King Dom Jose I, as well as with quality carriage horses for court purposes. Soil and grazing conditions at Alter were conducive to the raising of top-class stock, and for many years the stud produced a particularly fine stamp of horse.
Alter and its horses were also famous because of the association with Portugal's most distinguished Master of Horse, the Marquis of Marialva (1313-99), the "Portuguese La Guerini?re".
The stud suffered during the Peninsular War of 1804-14, much of the stock being dispersed by French troops, and in 1834 it was closed by royal decree. Subsequently, attempts were made to resuscitate the Alter breed with outcrosses to Hanoverian, Norman, and English blood, and there was one experiment to "arabize" the breed. None of these crosses was successful, and the introduction of massive Arab infusions was particularly disastrous. The breed only began to improve again when new Andalucian blood was re-introduced, towards the end of 19th century. At that time recourse was to mares of the purest Andalucian strain, Zapateros bred by the Zapata family.
After the dissolution of the Portuguese monarchy, at the beginning of the 20th century, the stud and the Alter breed would disappeared entirely had it not been for active intervention of Portugal's greatest equestrian authority, Dr. Ruy d'Andrade, managed to save a small nucleus of the Alter-Real stock, and line-bred to just two stallions. In 1932 the Alter stud was handed over to the Ministry of Agriculture, today, though small, it thrives and retains a significant part of the country's rural heritage.
The Alter horses are trained to perform High School work, and it is claimed that the modern stock now resemble the original horses of the 18th century. The breed differs from other Iberian horses, particularly in characteristics such as the appearance of the back and the length of the pasterns and cannons. One breed expert, Signor Leather de Macedo, writing in 1931, pointed to the forearm being shorter than the cannon, and the chest is certainly particularly wide and deep ? more so, apparently, than in either the Lusitano or the Andalucian. The action is extravagant with notable knee flexion, which is no detriment in a horse dedicated to the baroque principles of classicism.
The principal and accepted colors of the Alter breed are bay or brown, although de Macedo wrote of chestnut, bay, and piebald also occurring. These colours are not seen today, nor is the breed considered to be "temperamental and even violent" as it was suggested by de Macedo.
OTHER IBERIAN HORSES
Spain has a large Arab horse population, of a particular quality that is much sought after in international Arab breeding. Considerable use is also made of the Thoroughbred with the object of producing competition stock.
The Andalucian crossed with the Arab, Anglo-Arab, or Thoroughbred, produces an elegant, free-moving horse. The stock retains the Andalucian's gentleness and some of its strength and agility but, particularly when the Thoroughbred or Anglo-Arab is used, it has more slope to the shoulder and a longer, lower action.
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