What is the relationship of Sorraias and North American Colonial Spanish Horses?
This is another important question. If the Sorraia were an important and integral founder of what are today’s Colonial Spanish Horses, then this could be a breed resource of great immediate value and interest in Spanish Mustang breeding programs. The historical evidence for the foundations of the North American Colonial Spanish horse include horses of many different colors. These are specifically laid out in various accounts, most notably the detailed one concerning the horses of Cortez. This, again, is at odds with a unique and uniform subspecies having been brought over to the Americas. The bloodtyping evidence has also failed to demonstrate a tight link between today’s Sorraias and today’s North American Colonial Spanish Horses. A link, yes, but a tight link expected of a founder and its descendants, no. The available evidence supports that these two breeds are within an overall breed group of Iberian horses that includes other breeds such as the Criollos of South America, the vario
