North American Horse Encyclopedia

Spanish Colonial Horse - Spanish horse, about 1650 and not much resemblance
to most horses that are called Spanish colonial horses in America today. Granted, this painting is not great in accurate detail, but the general type comes through clearly

SORRAIA MUSTANG – A SPANISH COLONIAL HORSE?
If the Sorraia and the Spanish colonial horse are related, how come so many Spanish colonial horses look so different?

The Sorraia is not just a Spanish colonial horse. It was part of it, helped create it, but is much older. It was before Columbus. It was before Spain existed as a kingdom. It was before there were domestic breeds in Iberia.
Of the horses that were brought over by the Spanish, most likely only a small percentage were Sorraias, or of predominantly Sorraia blood. The horses of the Spanish conquistadores and colonists were mostly of man-made breeds, and of mixed lineage. From that foundation, all kinds of types could develop in America, and could be selectively bred by Man.

Whether the horses referred to today as "Spanish colonial“ are really in type (and lineage) what the horses of the conquistadores and Spanish colonists were is very questionable. While for most of them a Spanish ancestry can reasonably be assumed, and can in many cases even be genetically proven, the average so-called "Spanish colonial horse“ today seems to have little resemblance of the proud Spanish war horse that was world-famous at the time of the conquest.

The 18th C. English painter John Wooton painted many spotted horses including a leopard horse specifically titled "Lady Conaway's Spanish Jennet".

It is well established through a multitude of examples in art that horses of the exotic color patterns of pinto and atigrado not only existed, but were treasures in many civilizations as far back as the Aurignacian-Perigordian culture (cave dwellers) of 18,000 BC. Paleolithic animal art (15,000 - 10,000 BC) found in the cave paintings of Altamira, Spain and Lascaux, France show horses with exotic coat patterns. The history of the Spanish Jennet horse began in Ancient Spain and developed in Medieval Spain as the product of the chance collision of several worlds and their horses. The mingling of these cultures and their mounts sparked the flame that became the world's finest riding horse - the Spanish Jennet.

About 3,500 years ago, somewhere in the steppe region of Asia, horses were domesticate. The spotted horses were especially eye-catching and so they frequently became models for the local artisans. Some of those relics have endured to present day leaving us some record of horses during ancient times. The area known as Ferghana (a frontier province of Persia) became a source of supply of spotted horses in prehistoric and ancient times. There are spotted horses in the art of ancient Egypt dating from 1500 - 1300 BC. Spotted horses are depicted in Mycenean art from the 14th century BC. Pinto is depicted in a wall painting in the necropolis of Thebes circa 1415 BC.
Around 1000 BC, constantly in search of lush pasture for their herds, a nomadic tribe from the steppe region known as Scythia (area lying on the Black Sea between the mouths of the Danube and the Don Rivers) migrated westward; along the banks of the Danube River. These peoples were consummate horsemen. The modern day town of Hallstatt, Austria now occupies the area of the nomad's settlement. All that remains of the nomadic people is an ancient burial area, rich in archeological finds, bespeaking the nature of that early migrated culture. A sword dating to @800 BC specifically depicts horses with spots. In an Etruscan tomb in Italy, dated about the same time - 800 BC, exists a wall painting depicting a horse with a spotted rump. Since the Etruscans
came to Italy by ship @1000 BC they likely had brought those horses with them from Asia Minor, the steppe region. The Chinese emperor Wu Ti ( 2nd C. BC) eventually secured the "Heavenly Horses" of Ferghana (112 - 101 BC) to import to China to improve and replace the inferior native stock. Among those horses are depicted spotted horses. Chinese trade with the west insured a steady flow of improved horse flesh entering China. Spotted horses have been common in China for the last 2000 years as evidenced in surviving art and persist to present day.

http://www.spanishjennet.org/history.shtml

The history of the Spanish Jennet horse began in Ancient Spain and developed in Medieval Spain as the product of the chance collision of several worlds and their horses. The mingling of these cultures and their mounts sparked the flame that became the world's finest riding horse - the Spanish Jennet.