OklahomaHorses Magazine March 2021

26 OklahomaHorses • March/April 2021 Oklahoma Heritage Horse Sanctuary Preserving Equine History WRITTEN BY: Casie Bazay | PHOTOS BY: Diane Weeks Photography M any Oklahomans may not be aware that our great state is home to a piece of living equine history, but in nine separate locations, owned by seven individuals in southeastern Oklahoma, is a sanctuary that is home to approximately 300 horses, all direct descendants of the original Colonial Spanish horse. Remnants of the Golden Age of Spain, they have all but gone extinct on the European continent. But before we learn about this sanctuary, let’s begin with some history: In the 1500s, Hernando De Soto and his group of Spanish explorers came to the Americas searching for gold, bringing with them their har- dy Colonial Spanish horses, a small, athletic and extremely durable breed that was well-suited for exploring the wild country. However, the explorers would soon meet resistance from Native Americans, and after bat- tling with the Chickasaws, many of their horses were taken from them. The Native Americans quickly came to appreciate the Spanish horses’ unique nature—gentle in disposition but also intelligent, strong and agile. Though some of the Colonial Spanish horses escaped into the wild where they roamed freely, the Chickasaws, Choctaws and several other Indian tribes were determined to keep their herds pure, so as not to lose any of the qualities they admired in the breed. The Indian tribes’ efforts paid off, and by the 1700s, the Colonial Spanish horse had become the most common horse breed in North America. When Congress passed the Indian Remov- al Act in 1830, the Five Civilized Tribes: the Choctaw, Chickasaw, Cherokee, Seminole and Creek were forced to move to Oklahoma territory in what would become known as the Trail of Tears—an event that led to devastating loss of life for the tribes. This forced evacuation is how many Colonial Spanish horses ended up in Oklahoma. Born in Indian Territory in the early 1900s, Gilbert Jones grew fond of the Colonial Spanish horses (also referred to as Colonial Spanish Mus- tangs) after receiving one as a gift when he was a child. Jones became devoted to preserving these