In the early part of this century, the original Iberian horse was divided in the two horse breed, now known as the Spanish: Pura Raza Española/P.R.E. (Andalusian ) and the Portuguese: Puro Sangue Lusitano. Lusitano means Portuguese in old-Latin, the old name for Portugal was and still is: Lusitania.
The Iberian horse is the oldest saddle horse in the world. They have been ridden in over 5000 years and used as war horses. But you can read about the history of the Lusitano, several places on the web, I'm no expert so I recommend you to read about them, here: LINKS!

 

I want to tell about my own knowledge of the Lusitano, what I think, like and know. I was introduced to the "Luso" in 1996 after being introduced to the breed, through the web. I came in contact with the president of the International Andalusian and Lusitano Horse Association (IALHA), Dr. William (Bill) Killingsworth. He told me, that the best way to know more about the breed, was to see them in real life, in Portugal - and so I did! I went to The Festival International do Puro-Sangue Lusitano, Lisbon 96' and it was a very overwhelming experience. I have never seen horses move like that and I had never seen stallions so calm, but still showing off. I WAS IN LOVE! I took many pictures and I observed and learn all that Bill had to tell me about the breeders, different breeding aims, the brands and the most important, what kind of Lusitano I preferred for my self. My favorite was the d'Andrade brand, that is one of the biggest and oldest breeding lines in Portugal Dr. Ruy d'Andrade started with his brand,  then several of his family members have become breeders as well with their own brands. The d'Andrade line has a calm and very soft temperament, they look more refined and often with a straight profile and a powerful neck line. they are mostly used for artistic, competitive dressage and traditional Portuguese Equition. After seeing lusitano foals, fillies, colts, mares and stunning stallions, all other horse breeds, just didn't look right. Suddenly I hated the typical Danish Warm blood type, with it's long neck and back. I just think now that the way the Iberian horse is built, is the correct way. It's logical for balance and power in the movements.

Score:

The colors are  59% grey, 25% bay, 5% black,  3% chestnut and 4% other colors like: isabela, palomino, albino and white.
(Relative frequency of the pelagens registadas in stud-book of the Lusitano, for a total of 13883 animals).

Read more in danish - here!

Todays Lusitano is bred for competitions and pleasing confirmation. The explanation to the question of why no one has heard that much about the Luso, can be the small number of breeding Lusitanos. Portugal has the largest number of Luso stud farms, then Brazil, France, Belgium, Germany and USA. In Denmark where I live, we only have about 3 maybe 4 Lusitanos (I know of). The breeders of Lusitano horses, have always bred for performance, the different line of horses, where bred for different purposes. Some where bred for the bullfighting  arena, others for the Portuguese classical dressage and so on. The bullfighting horse, have to be fast and on its toes, brave and not necessarily very tall. Smaller horses can react much faster. The dressage horses, have to have a gentle temperament, easy to control and love for showing himself. You must remember that when I write about the riding horse, it's stallions I mean. Previous times and at present it is always the stallions who are ridden in competitions and in the bullfighting arena. The stallions are almost never gelded. Mares were only used as broodmares, "just" enjoying life in the pasture. But this is starting to change. I'm quite sure that the mares who also have the great temperament and body of the male Luso, will be marvelous for dressage and pleasure riding horses, given the opportunity. In France, for example, many people find that they make excellent pleasure horses.