Horse Breeds Young Rider

Breed Spotlight: The Galiceño

Meet the Galiceño, a very rare, Spanish-descended breed of horse that is up for any challenge.

We all know the story of Christopher Columbus and his voyage to the New World in 1492. But what we don’t always see highlighted in this account are the horses he brought along on his second voyage, when he landed on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola.

As it turns out, Columbus and a Spanish conquistador named Hernán Cortés brought horses to Hispaniola from the Spanish province of Galician to start a breeding program. The goal was to produce horses for use in the colonization of the Americas. 

These Galician horses were among the first modern horses in the New World, and the ancestors of thousands of horses that would someday roam the American West as wild Mustangs. 

A Galiceño mare and foal.
Today’s Galiceño still retains Spanish traits, such as a straight or convex head, low-set tail and sloping rump. Photo by Bob Langrish

Over the centuries, the pure Galiceño slowly disappeared from the New World except along the coastal regions of Mexico, where Cortés had taken these horses when he invaded there in the 1500s. 

By the 1950s, enough Galiceños still existed in Mexico for a number to be brought to the U.S. The Galiceño Horse Breeders Association was formed in 1959 to help promote the breed. Galiceños were dispersed around the U.S. and were eventually used to help create the Pony of the Americas, as well as the King Ranch line of cutting horses.  

Colonial Spanish Horse

Galiceños are in the family of Colonial Spanish Horses, which are a group of breeds that descend from the horses brought by the Spanish to the New World. As with many horses of Spanish genetics, Galiceños have certain physical characteristics.

Short backs are one of the most notable Spanish horse features, and Galiceños are known for only having five vertebrae, instead of the six seen in most non-Spanish breeds. Narrow but deep chests are another Spanish trait, and give these horses substantial lung capacity and cooling ability, making them good choices for sports requiring endurance.

The head of the Galiceño is classically Spanish, with a straight or convex profile. The nostrils are crescent-shaped, and the eyes are set low and wide. Also, in Spanish horses, the bone over the eye is heavier and more protruding than on other breeds. Their ears are often hooked at the tips. 

Another unique trait in the Spanish Colonial Horses like the Galiceño is small or even absent chestnuts—the hard, fleshy growth above the horse’s knee. Some breeds have large chestnuts that grow long and have to be trimmed, but in Galiceños and their Spanish cousins, the chestnuts are barely noticeable. 

Finally, a classic trait of Galiceños and other Colonial Spanish Horses are the low-set tail and rounded croup without a crease down the center.

Saving the Breed

These days, you won’t find too many purebred Galiceños around. In fact, only about 100 of them exist in the U.S. Even though they are hardy, versatile, and easy to train, Galiceños are small horses, making them less appealing to adult riders. They are strong enough to carry a grown man, but in a world of much taller horses, it has been hard for them to compete for attention.

People who ride Galiceños use them for many different disciplines, including ranch work, trail riding, gymkhana, dressage and hunt seat. They are known for being gentle and easy to handle, bright and alert, and for having both courage and stamina.

Because Galiceños are so rare, they are in danger of going extinct. The Galiceño Horse Breeders Association is encouraging horse lovers to get involved with this breed by keeping small breeding herds. The goal is to increase the number of Galiceños, because many of the few that remain are not being bred.

It’s also important for Galiceño owners to get their horses out there where people will see them. Horse shows, competitive trail rides, endurance, gymkhana events—these are all opportunities for horse lovers to get to know the amazing Galiceño.

Galiceño Fun Facts

◆ Galiceños range in size from 12.3 to 13 hands in height.

◆ Galiceños come in mostly solid colors, with roans, bays, grullas, duns, blacks, sorrels, buckskins, chestnuts, browns, palominos and grays being the most common.

A conformation photo of a young palomino.
Palomino, roan, dun, and grulla are all common colors among the breed. Photo by Bob Langrish

◆ Galiceños are so rare that the Livestock Conservancy has categorized them as “critically endangered,” with less than 200 individual horses remaining.

◆ Texas A&M University did DNA testing on the Galiceño and discovered that the breed is very closely related to the Garrano horses of Portugal, a primitive horse of the Iberian Peninsula.

You can learn more about the Galiceño by visiting the Galiceño Horse Breeders Association.

This article about the Galiceño horse breed appeared in the May/June 2024 issue of Young Rider magazine. Click here to subscribe!

Audrey Pavia

Audrey Pavia is a freelance writer and the author of Horses for Dummies. She lives in Norco, Calif., with her two registered Spanish Mustangs, Milagro and Rio.

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