Foundation vs New Generation Hispano-Arabe

Foundation vs New Generation Hispano-Arabe

The Hispano-Arabe horse is an indigenous Spanish breed that had been “breeding true”for hundreds of years with consistent, replicable and predictable characteristics even when occasional outcrossing occurred to improve the breed.

The regeneration plan that Spain instigated when the Hispano-Arabe was on the critical point of extinction due to its low numbers of breeding horses, required special allowance of “outside” blood to improve the overall health and vigour of the breed.

Historically the Hispano-Arabe has its foundation in two purebred breeds; the Arabian and the Pure Spanish Horse of Andalusia. The regeneration plan for the Hispano-Arabe involves “re-infusing” the breed with new bloodlines from the parent purebreeds.

In a normal breed improvement plan the simple breeding of existing Hispano-Arabe horses with the permitted Arab or Pure Spanish horses would be the system operated. However the Hispano-Arabe breeding stock numbers were so critically low that a more radical recovery programme had to be implemented.

A responsible crossbreeding process to produce hybrid F1 and F2 Arabian x Pure Spanish horses was agreed upon with the intention that over time these “new” Hispano-Arabe stocks would be bred with each other and with the original Hispano-Arabe bloodlines.

In order not to dilute the influence of the parent bloodlines of these horses a percentage blood ratio of Arabian:Spanish was agreed upon which permitted a minimum of 25% Arab blood and maximum of 75% Arab blood. As a further evaluation strategy all existing original Hispano-Arabe breeding stocks regardless of actual Arabian blood content were graded for entry to a Foundation Stud Book and rated as being a baseline 50% Arab.

For owners breeding first (F1) and second (F2) generation “new” Hispano-Arabe horses by the permitted crossbreeding programme the production of Hispano-Arabe appears to be a very simple endeavour. However as some early owners discovered when the grading stage was involved, their horses failed to meet the standard for approval in the breeding register.

To produce a Hispano-Arabe it is not a simple matter of taking “any” Arabian and breeding it to “any” Pure Spanish horse. Both of these pure breeds within their own acceptable breed standard have a range of phenotype profiles. In the UK we have a far greater diversity of Arabian horses than Spain has had in her history of the breeding of the Hispano-Arabe. The Pure Spanish horse in its recent history has also been selected to diversify into a heavyweight and a lightweight phenotype.

For our UK breeding programme to increase our production of viable Hispano-Arabe young stock that will pass grading we have to be selective in using the heavier profile Pure Spanish horses and Arabians of Spanish, Polish, Russian and old Crabbett type.

The evaluation criteria that Spain has been fine tuning over the last 30 years takes into account a reasonable range of profile diversity with in the new breeding programmes but is ultimately travelling towards a more fixed breed type.

Foundation Stallion PIYAYO

Here in the UK I have the only foundation Hispano-Arabe bloodlines and eventually the progeny descending from Piyayo will be bred across and infused into the new Hispano-Arabe stock just as foundation lines in Spain are being used to fix the breed there.

The arbitrary classification of the original foundation horses as 50% Arab carries with it a loaded dice concept to the breeding programme with respect to the effect or influence these horses will have upon the Hispano-Arabe stock of true quantifiable Arab ratio.

For example Piyayo on paper is listed in the closed Foundation Stud Book as 50% Arab. In reality when the Arab Horse Society was interested in registering him with them for his sports capability they could not trace even the required proven 7% Arab they needed to validate him.

His pedigree www.allbreedpedigree.com/piyayo tells the truth about just how much Arab or Spanish influence he carries. But as his genetic coding is the result of generations of blending it is no longer a simple matter of one or other of the parent breeds having a predictable stamp. To quote the Spanish 'he is Hispano-Arabe. Neither Arab nor Pure Spanish. Just what he is; Hispano-Arabe.'

The predictable stamp that he passes down on the outbreeding programme I have had to operate is the original Hispano-Arabe influence. Thus, his two daughters; one out of a Polish Arabian mare and one out of a PRE mare while registered as respectively 75% and 25% Arab are in phenotype nearer to 50% and 1% Arab. The original Hispano-Arabe fixed geneotype from Piyayo gives all his line a distinctly different profile to other Hispano-Arabe horses of the same documented percentages.

This difference is occurring in Spain even more so given that they have more foundation bloodlines. However the influence of these horses in Spain has already started to be diversified by the foundation bloodlines at various points being breed with the new Hispano-Arabe stock thus steadily producing a leveling off; and as intended fixing of a breed standard.

Failure of this country to expand the breed here and to make full use of the only foundation horse available (Piyayo produced three Hispano-Arabe colts/potential stallions from unrelated Arabian mares; none of them were inscribed onto the Hispano-Arabe stud books due to deliberate actions by the appointed registrar of the time) and to expand its F1 breeding programme, means that we are dealing with breeding programme that will be dominated by outcross bloodlines and take far longer to fix the breed standard.

In Spain the Hispano-Arabe breed is still on the critical register for survival so it is highly unlikely that quality breeding horses will find their way here to help improve our genetic pool. Although with Calificardo grading now opening the door to AI this new avenue of breed improvement is something I'm negotiating with Spain.

In the meantime without implementing a draconian breeding programme I hope that anyone considering breeding Hispano-Arabe horses will make use of our help and advice in order to ensure the production of viable Hispano-Arabe horses. Of course apart from breeding for percentage ratio and phenotype there also has to be consideration about function, the inheritable multi sports ability of the breed.

When naturally breeding from a small gene pool even with the allowed “outside” blood there will be by necessity to fix the breed, a requirement to linebreed or inbreed to prevent dilution while still seeking a balance of breed diversity. To provide advice in this area I have requested the assistance of The Animal Health Trust geneticists who specialise with other rare equine breeds such as the Shire Horse that face the same problem of balancing their breed strategy.

When required Fred Barrelet of Beaufort Cottages has also kindly confirmed his interest in providing assistance on veterinary protocol in dealing with our rare breed future strategies.