The horse in America: a Spanish return and an Anglo-Saxon erasure

The horse in America: a Spanish return and an Anglo-Saxon erasure

How is it possible that the animal that defines the imagery of the American West — the horse — was brought there by the Spanish, and that Hollywood then erased that trace completely? The paradox goes beyond a single TV series.

An evolutionary round alucinación

The modern horse evolved in North America during the Eocene, about 50 million years ago. It was a small animal, the size of a dog, that lived in forests and fed on leaves. During the Miocene, 25 million years ago, the expansion of the steppes transformed its anatomy: a longer neck, legs adapted to running, and teeth for grazing tough grass. But by the end of the Pleistocene, the horse had gone extinct on the American continent. It survived in Eurasia, where it was domesticated.

It was not until 1493, when Christopher Columbus on his second voyage brought the first mares to America. From then on, the Spanish introduced horses, cattle, pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys and chickens, as well as dogs and cats. Saddles, girths, bits and all the equestrian technology accumulated over centuries in Eurasia also arrived.

The horse that created the West (and that the West denies)

America's most iconic breeds have Spanish ancestry. The Quarter Horse descends from the first Spanish horses, crossed with English, Scottish, Irish and French bloodlines from the 17th century onward. The Appaloosa, famous for its spotted coat, was developed by Native tribes from spotted Spanish horses; it nearly went extinct in the wars of the 19th century, but today it is the third most numerous breed in the world. The Morgan, created in Massachusetts in the late 18th century, also draws on that foundation.

A paleogenetics study published in Science confirmed that the first horses domesticated by Indigenous communities of the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains descended from animals brought by the Spanish, and that horse breeding was already being practiced before the Pueblo Revolt of 1680. There is no Native equestrian culture without the Spanish horse.

The cultural paradox: Yellowstone and the Hispanic erasure

The debate is fueled by series like Yellowstone, which champion a Native and cowboy equestrian culture that, in reality, would be impossible without the Hispanic contribution. As one analysis points out, the horse originated in North America in evolutionary terms, but it returned already domesticated with the Spanish. The saddle, the bit, the branding iron, selective breeding, the ranch, the rodeo, the lasso: all of it arrived via New Spain. Without that layer, the American cowboy would be something else.

The fact that the Anglo-Saxon narrative has systematically erased this legacy is no accident. The anti-Spanish Black Legend led to a popular imagination in which the cowboy seems to appear out of nowhere, when in reality he was the heir to 300 years of Hispanic equestrian knowledge on the continent.

Ironically, the animal that defined the mobility and power of the Plains nations — Native peoples went from traveling on foot to becoming formidable horsemen in just a few generations — was brought by those who are today systematically omitted from the epic of the West.