Mangalarga

Not to be confused with the Mangalarga Marchador horse breed, the Mangalarga developed when the Baron of Alfenas, who was named Francisco Gabriel Junqueira, mixed the Royal Alter breed from Portugal with the colonial horses of Brazil. The results of the breeding were the Mangalarga and Mangalarga Marchador breeds. The latter has a smoother gait and comes from Iberian bloodlines, rather than other European lines. At first, however, the resulting horses were named Sublimes. The name Mangalarga came from the farm that belonged to Junqueira’s friend who brought some Sublimes from him. Eventually, an association formed. When the association moved to Sao Paulo, they realized that they needed to make changes to the breed. They needed a horse that would do better with the local topography and surroundings. Thus, they started another round of crossbreeding in order to add different characteristics to the Mangalarga breed. They brought in the Morgan, Hanoverian, Trakehner, Hackey, and American Saddle Horse for this purpose. The result was that the Mangalarga became completely different from the Mangalarga Marchador. With all the changes, each of these breeds had its own studbook.