The horse must be strong enough to carry the rider easily, resistant enough to cover long distances at speed and work with a high degree of energy for a long time, as in the bullfight or in a three-day event. He must be very brave so as not to mind when he occasionally gets hurt by a bull or an obstacle or gets threatened by another horse/rider combination like in polo, horseball, et cetera. He needs to be patient in order to tolerate incessant demands from the rider during the bullfight without becoming irritated, fearful, or sullen. He must be extremely careful not to touch the poles of the show jumps and to stay away from the bull's horns, yet bold enough to jump fences willingly and to approach the bull with a daring courage.

The Iberian's mind is in some ways similar to the one of a sheepdog, always eager to work, anxious to learn, and quick to remember the exercises learned years earlier, seemingly without much prompting. Their degree of intelligence, developed by long selection, is very high, but does not bring them to boredom because it is combined with good will.

Many school horses of this breed, after years of being ridden by beginners, still perform generously and correctly when asked. Their docility is exemplary and strong stallions can be seen ridden in company by children as young as six or seven, whom they obey purely out of gentility.

The psychic qualities of this horse are as important if not more important than the physical ones. One of the particular abilities of the Iberian horse is to easily understand the 'difficulties' of high-level training. He seems never to get confused about the many different types of movements and situations. His quickness of mind has served him well; he is the circus horse of choice and practically has the monopoly on fancy movie work.

Columella says eulogistically: " ...as to temperament, the most esteemed are those, which although easily excited, can nevertheless be calmed, and those which although calm are hard workers." This particularity of temperament is unique to Iberian horses. Due to the spiritual nature of Iberian horses, a transcendental process occurs between horse and rider when the heart and soul are opened through the rider.

Jean-Philippe Giacomini states, "After 30 years of a professional experience that spanned 11 countries on both continents, I have had the opportunity to ride and compare most breeds of horses. Through my in depth study of the classical horse, I eventually acquired the overwhelming conviction of the historical injustice that was done to this marvelous animal and the culture of which he is the soul. This breed, probably the oldest known as a riding horse in the world with 60 centuries of evidence, whose presence has been established throughout history in every country of the Old and New World absolutely deserves the title of a "Living Treasure".

In the years of study I spent in the Iberian Peninsula, I learned that the predisposition of this equine ballet dancer may have started by an accident of evolution 30,000 years ago, somewhere between Morocco and the south of Spain and has since been refined by centuries of fine tuning on the part of the Iberian breeders.

The incredible ability of this horse to read the thoughts of his rider is genetically imprinted in his alert and willing mind and in his body, whose flexibility and energy seem limitless. The resulting feeling for the rider who will attune his/her own sensitivity to that of his/her mount, is one of bliss and superhuman power. The kind that makes him feel able to move like lightning in any direction and without any effort other than wanting it.

I felt compelled at the time to know this equine marvel better. It led to a lifelong dedication to study through its history the nature of his prowess and build a strong desire to help modern breeders to conserve and further refine the Iberian horse with each new generation, extend its possibilities and further improve the relationship between the human and the horse.

This is the tale of the Iberian horse and his influence over many cultures and most equine breeds. My sense of mission stems from a long owed debt to a breed that has provided me with an addictive profession, a difficult but rewarding path of enlightenment and insight to a culture that felt like home as soon as it was revealed. The first gift of this horse to me was of a very personal nature: the revelation of the genuine artistic potential possessed by the Iberian to the highest degree.

After nearly a decade of having used the mechanical approach to riding, learned from the French military, I discovered an animal that was like an extension of myself: an old dancing partner that already knew the steps and enjoyed the music.

The Iberian horse has been the common thread to many cultures. He alone often survived them with his glory intact as he traveled through time, the vehicle of conquests and retreats, the living symbol of victory and power, an animal so resilient that no political upheaval has managed to erase him out of our lives. To this day, he is still adored by the survivors of the cultures he touched, served and embellished and, surprisingly, by the ones he helped to destroy. His beauty, his serenity and the sense of service he displayed through 60 centuries of history often made him, along with art, the only guardian of our softer emotions: Love and the sense of Beauty.

The first appearance of the Iberian horse is recorded in the cave paintings of the south of Spain dated before the Ice Age: Osuna, La Pileta near Malaga and Escoural in Portugal and most likely migrated there from northern Africa. In comparison, the study of the paintings in the caves of the south of France, like Lascaux, or the north of Spain like Altamira, show a different breed who resembles completely the modern ponies and are known in Spain and Portugal as Garranos. The horses in the south have all the distinctive features of the proto-Iberian represented today by the Sorraia. The Sorraia is a dun or grulla horse with a height of roughly l4.2 hands, a subconvex profile, long legs and an arched neck. The paintings were found in the same areas where riding artifacts were discovered, indicating an equestrian culture as far back as 4,000 B.C.

In the Peninsula, the original Sorraia probably crossed with the northern Garranos. The result of the mixing of those two inbred groups of equines resulted, because of the hybrid vigor, into a horse of larger size sufficient to be ridden by man and capable of performing warlike evolutions. Although this new horse benefitted from the outcross by gaining size, it seems that the north African horses' genes were determinant in all other aspects of his development.

The modern Sorraia was preserved and bred back to purity by Ruy D'Andrade out of semi-wild herds he discovered in Portugal around 1920 between the rivers Sor and Raia. Small herds still exist in Portugal and one was exported to Germany. This horse was present throughout the Peninsular history but was slowly discarded to the benefit of his more sophisticated and taller descendent, the Andalusian.