Cherished for his unique and appealing coat patterns and unequaled smooth gait, the Spanish Jennet Horse was in the Middle Ages as he is today, a versatile, colorful horse popular because of his exceptional athletic ability and tremendous heart. In the Middle Ages the greatest horsemen of that time recognized the extraordinary value of the Spanish Jennet horse. Today he is again earning that same respect. The Spanish Jennet horse of the Middle Ages is responsible for the comfortable gait of most modern breeds of gaited horses. The Spanish Jennet possesses a gait unique in the horse world and has the genetic ability to pass that gait to his offspring.
 

Queen Margarita on Horseback. 1634/35 Married to Philip III king of Spain,  grand-niece of Charles V of Austria.	Lady Conaway's Spanish Jennet from the Marquees of Hertford Collection

Paso Fino and Peruvian Paso Horse are without doubt the modern day version of the famed Spanish Jennet. The impressive and comfortable gait and the tendency toward elaborate coloring, made the Spanish Jennet the choice of nobility during the flamboyant Baroque Period in European history (2nd half of the 16th C to the beginning of the 18th C). As the 18th C. advanced, most Europeans eventually began to think of any flashy colored horse as vulgar. The Spaniards however, maintained a keen interest in the exotic colors and patterns, and if not for that interest many interesting colors and patterns might have vanished forever. In those times, the horse of Spain was not only bay, grey, black, chestnut, palomino and buckskin but he also appeared in the exotic patterns of pintado (pinto) and atigrado (tiger or what you may know as appaloosa).

As time marched on, the patterned horses began to lose favor in the face of the influence of certain elements within the modern registries for the Paso breeds. Since the Leopard (Lp) Complex (Atigrado coloring)has been all but bred out of Paso horses, it is accepted that non-Paso horses will have to be incorporated to reestablish the Atigrado division of the Spanish Jennet Horse Registry. The wholesale outcrossing which has been the downfall of so many other breeds, destroying the very characteristics the breed organizations were designed to protect, will not be allowed by the Spanish Jennet Horse Society. All outcrossing designed to reestablish the Lp complex pattern in the Atigrado division will be limited to one generation only.

The Pintado (pinto) Paso still is available, thus the Pintado division will not allow any out-crossing from pure Paso lines.

In response to the AAOBPPH and PPHRNA restriction on horses with "excessive white" markings and the APF and PFHA tendency to overlook the quality of a horse because of its pinto markings, the Spanish Jennet Horse Registry Pintado division has been established as a venue for these horses to be appreciated and improved for the qualities they exhibit as their birthright. 

The goal of the Spanish Jennet Horse Society will be to ensure the perpetuation of the horses which make up the distinctive "Horse of the Middle Ages", the Spanish Jennet Horse. Our steadfast resolve will be to insure that the Spanish Jennet Horse remains easily identifiable and is free of influences which diminish the very features which make the Spanish Jennet Horse the distinctive and extraordinary breed of the past as well as the future. 

Horses who meet the registry requirements of the Spanish Jennet Horse Society can be submitted for registration consideration. The Spanish Jennet Horse Society will not be satisfied with a breed based entirely on coat patterns and gait, the founders of the SJHS are also setting strict standards for conformation, athletic ability and performance, as well as demanding intelligent, willing dispositions and an enthusiastic temperament. The colorful coat pattern, gait and type are essential to the identity of the Spanish Jennet Horse as a breed, and preserving the gait along with these unique coat patterns is the purpose for which the Spanish Jennet Horse Society was formed.