Portrait Of A Criollo, Argentina

by Venetia Featherstone-Witty

Title

Portrait Of A Criollo, Argentina

Artist

Venetia Featherstone-Witty

Medium

Photograph - Photographs

Description

The Criollo (in Spanish), or Crioulo (in Portuguese), is the native horse of Uruguay (1910), Argentina (1918), Brazil (1932) and Paraguay. with a reputation for long-distance endurance linked to a low basal metabolism. The breed, known for its hardiness and stamina, is popular in its home countries.

The word criollo originally referred to human and animals of pure-bred Spanish ancestry that were born in the Americas, or, in Portuguese crioulo, to animals or slaves born in the Americas. In time, the meaning of the word would simply come to refer to native breeds of the Americas.
The breed dates back to a 1535 shipment of 100 Pure Bred Spaniards - Andalusian stallions coming from Cadiz, Spain, to the Rio de la Plata imported by Buenos Aires founder, Pedro de Mendoza
The Criollo is a hardy horse with a brawny and strong body with broad chest and well-sprung ribs. They have sloping strong shoulders with muscular necks, short and strong legs with good bone structure and resistant joints, low-set hocks and sound hard feet. The medium to large size long-muzzled head has a straight or slightly convex profile with wide-set eyes. The croup is sloping, the haunches well-muscled, and the back, short with a strong loin.

The criollo is tractable, intelligent, willing and sensible. Criollo horses average 14.3 hands high, being the maximum height for stallions and geldings of 14 to 15 hands high. The difference between the maximum and minimum height for mares is approximately 2 cm (one inch). The line-backed dun is the most popular color, but the breed may also come in bay, brown, black, chestnut, grullo, buckskin, palomino, blue or strawberry roan, gray and overo colors.

The breed is famous for their endurance capabilities and ability to live in harsh conditions, as their homeland has both extreme heat and cold weather. They are frugal eaters, thriving on little grass. They have good resistance to disease and are long-lived horses.

FEATURED 12/27/17 in "Animal Photographs"
FEATURED 12/30/17 in "The Grayscale Outdoors"
FEATURED 12/30/17 in "FAA Portrait Gallery"
FEATURED 12/31/17 in "Our 4-legged Friends"
FEATURED 1/6/18 in "Kingdom Animalia"
FEATURED 1/17/18 in "Photographic Art by Film or Digital Camera"
FEATURED 2/4/18 in "New FAA Uploads"
FEATURED 3/28/18 in "Black and White - The Art Form"
FEATURED 3/28/18 in "Pin Me Daily"

Uploaded

December 27th, 2017

Statistics

Viewed 844 Times  -  Last Visitor from New York, NY on 04/24/2024 at 2:21 PM

Colors

Embed

Share

Sales Sheet

Tags