Horses

The ALTER-REAL horse has experienced a somewhat turbulent history, largely due to ill founded tampering with the breed leading the breed with non favorable traits.? It would probably have decline to extinction were it not for the reintroduction of Andalucian blood into the breed stock "?? Andalucians being part of the main stock used to create the Alter-Real back in 1748 .

Although the Alter-Real is without question ?Iberian, it retains its uniqueness among the Iberian type breeds and is most suited to the Haute Ecole(the most elaborate and specialized form of dressage), which was its original function. Today, the classical Alter-Real is most famous for performances made by the Portuguese School of Equestrian Art.

THE ALTER-REAL
The Alter-Real was first bred at the royal Vila de Portel stud in the town of Alter DO Chao in Portugal. ?Real in Portuguese translates to "Royal"? as rather than keeping it real, the Alter-Real by its name is keeping it Royal. ?The Vila de Portel stud had as it purpose the breeding of horses fit for royalty, and was charged with providing the royal stables at Lisbon with horses suitable for classical equitation, a pursuit followed enthusiastically by King Dom Jose the first.? They were also bred for use by royalty as quality carriage horses for court purposes. Conditions(both weather and pastoral) at Alter were well suited to the raising of top-class stock, and for many years the stud produced top quality horses.

In the Peninsular War, the stud suffered a similar fate to the local royalty with much of the stock being dispersed by the French and in 1834 the stud was closed.? There were later attempt to rescue the breed by crossing remaining individuals with Hanoverian, Norman and English horses "?? the was even an attempt to cross them with the much to different Arabs.? All these experiments were failures, especially the nonsensical Arab experiment "?? the breed only improving when it was returned to its roots with a reintroduction of AndalucÃ?an blood in the late 19th century.?

With the dissolution of the Portuguese monarchy, in the early 20th century, both the stud and the Later_Real breed seem destined for extinction but were rescued by the intervention of Portugal's greatest equestrian authority, Dr. Ruy d'Andrade.? He managed to save a small nucleus of the Alter-Real stock, and line-bred to just two stallions. In 1932 the Alter stud was handed over to the Ministry of Agriculture, and remains a strong though small, thriving piece of Portugal's equine heritage.

The Alter horses are trained to perform High School work, and followers of the breed claim modern stock now resemble the original horses of the 18th century. The breed differs from other Iberian horses, most greatly in the appearance of the back and the length of the pasterns and cannons. Signor Leather de Macedo (An Iberian breed expert),described 1931 the forearm being shorter than the cannon in the Alter-Real, and the chest being particularly wide and deep - more so, apparently, than in either the Lusitano or the Andalucian. The action is extravagant with notable knee flexion, which is no detriment in a horse dedicated to the baroque principles of classicism.

The accepted colors of the Alter-Real breed are bay or brown, although de Macedo wrote of chestnut, bay, and piebald also occurring. These colours are however now extinct in the breed, as are its former explosive, at times violent temperament.
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