Costarican Saddle Horse

Costarican Saddle Horse : As the name itself tells, this is a horse breed that country of origin is Costa Rica. During the 16th century many Spanish people went in the New World to explore and during the Spanish Conquest were bringing their horses with them.

Desert horses from Morocco, with thin skin, short hair, mane, and tail were crossed with Spanish bloodlines that were very strong, rustic, bold for the conference and therefore suitable to take the first steps in the conquest. The resulting horses were well suited to the conditions, but because of the higher presence of the Barb horse over the Arabian, there is a less Arabian influence on the Spanish horses.

In the middle of the 19th-century breeders in Costa Rica has been more interested in selective breeding. To start inbreeding and provide better results, at this period they had to import stallions from Peru and Spain. A sabino stallion, named Janitzo, was the foundation sire of the Costa Rican Saddle horse. This horse was foaled in 1955, of a Barb descent and had a well-defined morphology.

The first association Asociacion de Criadores del Caballo Costarricense de Paso ASCACOPA was established in 1972 and two years later, in 1974 was opened the first stud book. The breed is rare and is not known outside of its native country. The Costa Rican Saddle horse is a gaited breed that has a distinguish confirmation and leg structure of other Spanish breeds in America. To be a gaited horse means that the horse has to possess natural or artificial gaits, caused by particular bone structure.

These horses have high and smooth leg action. Their legs are strong, followed with powerful hindquarters and long croup, well muscled and rounded, so they are able to perform this gait. The average height of the breed is between 14.1- 15.1 hands, with 14.1 being the minimum height for Mares and 14.2 for stallions.

They can occur in almost every coat color, except in pinto, and sometimes they can have white markings on the face, legs, and tail, thus they can be registered in the breed registry.