Barb Horse Breed:

The Barb horse breed comprises of desert horses that have been developed in North Africa on the Barbary Coast.



These horses display great stamina and hardiness. Purebred Barb horses are rare today due to the increasing crossbreeding that has been occurring.

The Barb horse breed serves as a light riding horse.



These horses possess a lot of stamina and the front ends of their bodies are very powerful. They have high withers, short backs and narrow croups which slope. The tail is set low and the legs are clean and hardy, with small hooves.



The gait of the Barb horse is not very good, but the horse can gallop well. This has had an influence of racing breeds such as the Standard bred, American Quarter Horse and thoroughbred. These horses are mostly gray in color, although there are some chestnut, bay, brown and black horses as well. The height of the Barbs is usually at 13.3 to 14.1. The origin of the Barb horse is not known for certain, although it is believed that the origin of the breed occurred in the north of Africa in the 8th century, when the Islamic invasion occurred in the region.

Breeding of the Barb horse breed takes place mainly in Spain, South of France, Algeria and Morocco. Because of a tough economic situation in the homeland of this horse breed, pure bred Barb horses are reducing in number. In 1987 the World Organization of the Barb horse was formed so that the promotion and preservation of the breed could take place. Even though the real origin of the breed may never be known, the Barb horse breed has been extremely influential on the development of horse breeds all over the world. The only other horse breed to have so much influence is the Arabian horse. The Barb horse breed carries a great deal of importance as a progenitor of other horse breeds, but it has received less renown that the Arabian horse. This is also due to the fact that it does not have the striking visual appeal of the Arabian horse as its appearance is not as refined and impressive. However, it does have the same endurance and stamina. It also has the same ability to live on scarce rations and displays great speed over shorter distances. The Abaco Barb is considered to be an endangered species of the Spanish Barb which lives on the Abaco Island of the Bahamas.