Mangalarga Marchador

The Mangalarga Marchador is a breed of horse. Highly regarded as the National Horse, there are over 350,000 registered Mangalarga Marchador horses in Brazil and a number found in several countries outside its Brazilian homeland. As an Iberian breed, descending from the Royal Alter Andaluz stallions of Portugal and barb mares, they have carriage, beauty and intelligence, a warm personality and are easily trained for almost any discipline. The Marchador horses are known for having a smooth stable walk, canter and gallop as well as a natural diagonal (batida) or lateral (picada) four beat gait with a brief moment of triple hoof support. Their endurance, versatility out on the range, trail and pleasure riding as well as the ability to be trained in dressage or jump, makes the batida Mangalarga Marchador a wonderful sport horse that can be inspected and registered as a warmblood.

History
It all began when Francisco Gabriel Junqueira (Baron of Alfenas) decided to start a breeding study mixing his Royal Alter stallions with the common horse stock he had in his farm by that time. The common stock was a mix of Barb horses (mostly) and other breeds that came to Brazil by the time of its colonization. The result of the Alter x colonial horse cross mix was an much beautiful horse with a smooth gait. The Baron called these horses Sublimes.

The time passed and Francisco Junqueira sold some of the Sublimes to his friend, who had a farm in Paty do Alferes in Rio de Janeiro state. The farm name was Mangalarga, and his owner sarted to use the Sublime horses to go to the Imperial capital, the Rio de Janeiro City. In Rio, people took notice of the smooth good looking Sublimes and started to call them Mangalargas.

There is a consensus among breeders and researchers about the history of the Baron of Alfenas, such as divulged in many publications since Imperial times. There is also consensus that up to 1910 most of the ranchers involved in the development of the breed (especially the members of the Junqueira family followed his recommendations of evolution with the fixation of the marching gait, rusticity, resistance and good temper.

The breed Split

In 1934 the Mangalarga Breeders Association was created. The founders had very clear and even obvious motivations, such as to define the directions of the breeding efforts, the function and the use of the horses, the desired characteristics of individuals in their functional and morphologic aspects, and a very clear definition of the intended gait. Those facts are very well documented, officially or otherwise, in constitution writs, stories told by ranchers of those times and even novels about the breed. The founders of that association had already used other breeds to achieve their objectives since they moved from Minas Gerais to S?o Paulo state.

They had made use of many trotting breeds (Arabs, Anglo-Arabian, English Thoroughbred, Morgan, Lusitan, Trakehner, American Saddlebred, American Trotter), and traction horses (Hackney) - with special attention to the use of the latter as a means of fixing the elevated movement. Theses mixes were made as a tentative to morphologically adapt the original Mangalarga to the "paulista" topography and culture.Because of this situation there was an increase in the differences between breeders that wanted to maintain the original objectives and those that defended the miscegenation. We must remember that the Mangalarga Breeders Association had it's Stud Books closed in 1943, about 9 years after it's foundation.So a group of breeders that disagreed from the objectives of the 1934 Association (Mangalarga) met in 1948 to found the Association (Mangalarga Marchador) that became today's ABCCMM.

In order to unite political force to create a new Stud Book, the breeders counted on the political prestige and technical expertise of professor Geraldo Carneiro. Dr. Geraldo, veterinarian and zootechnist, was a friend and neighbor of the governor of Minas Gerais and future president of Brazil, Juscelino Kubitschek. With those qualifications and contacts he succeeded in adding up a formula that permitted the preservation of the Original Marchador Horse, by means of founding a new association. With sufficient backing, there was a meeting called by a group of breeders in Hotel Gloria, in the city of Caxambu. Among those present was Dr. Joaquim Fernandes Braga, superintendent of the Animal Production Department of the state of Minas Gerais, Secretary of Agriculture, Industry, Trade and Labor. There were also graduated personnel from the same Secretary and from the federal Ministry of Agriculture, making clear the interest and focus demonstrated by higher authorities. In this preliminary reunion the Writs of Intention were signed by public workers, technicians and breeders, in total 22 persons.

The Breed Today

With more than 350,000 horses registered the Brazilian Mangalarga Marchador National Association (ABCCMM) is the biggest registry office of any type in Minas Gerais state. While there are less than fifty foundation Mangalarga Marchador horses in the United States, they are catching the attention of the horse world. You may have seen them on Horse Talk TV, marching in the New Year?s 2002 Tournament of Roses Parade, at Fiesta of the Spanish Horse, Western States Horse Expo in Sacramento, Equine Affaire in Pomona, Southern National Exposition in Perry, Georgia or Equitana in Lexington, Kentucky. Since their introduction to the U.S., the United States has approved and granted a trademark to the American Mangalarga Marchador Horse Association for the Mangalarga Marchador brand, logos and name just as other fine products. This trademark is protected under U.S. Customs laws and provides that only authorized registered Mangalarga Marchador horses can be imported.