Spain's official list of native horse breeds: 14 in 2008, 16 in 2019
We compared the horse entries in Spain's Official Catalogue of Livestock Breeds in two royal decrees and the orders that amended the first. Where the PRE stands, which breeds were added or renamed, and what 'endangered' means in the current text.
A statement sometimes made about the Purebred Spanish Horse (PRE), usually without a citation, runs like this: a 2008 Spanish royal decree listed fourteen native horse breeds, and all of them except the PRE were at risk of extinction. We went to the decree itself, then to the orders that amended its annex and the 2019 decree that replaced it, and counted.
Step 1: the 2008 decree
Real Decreto 2129/2008 (published in the BOE in January 2009) set out Spain’s Official Catalogue of Livestock Breeds in its Annex I (we read the text as issued). Native breeds were split into two classes: de fomento (breeds to be promoted, with enough population) and en peligro de extinción (endangered). For the horse species (especie equina caballar) the annex lists:
- De fomento: one breed, “Española”.
- En peligro de extinción: thirteen breeds: Asturcón, Burguete, the Monte de País Vasco horse, the Pura Raza Gallega horse, Hispano-Árabe, Hispano-Bretón, Jaca Navarra, Losina, Mallorquina, Marismeña, Menorquina, Monchina and Pottoka.
One plus thirteen is fourteen, and 13 of 14 is 92.9%. The claim checks out against the 2008 text, with one wording note: the decree lists the PRE simply as “Española”.
Step 1b: the annex was amended before 2019
The BOE record of the 2008 decree shows that its Annex I was replaced by ministerial orders in 2012, 2016 and 2018. We opened all three and read the horse entries. Orden AAA/251/2012 (BOE of 15 February 2012) added Cavall Pirinenc Català to the endangered horses. Orden AAA/1357/2016 (BOE of 9 August 2016) added the Las Retuertas horse. Orden APM/26/2018 (BOE of 22 January 2018) renamed three entries into Galician and Catalan forms and added the Carthusian strain to the PRE entry. So the horse list stood at fifteen breeds from 2012 and sixteen from 2016. “All except the PRE endangered” stayed true, because both added breeds were classed as endangered, but “fourteen” stopped being true in 2012.
Step 2: the 2019 decree
Real Decreto 45/2019 repealed the 2008 decree and published a new Annex I. The original 2019 text lists sixteen native horse breeds and no longer splits them into the two classes inside the annex. We matched the 2019 list name by name against the 2008 list as issued:
| Breed in the 2019 list | In the 2008 list? | 2008 class |
|---|---|---|
| Asturcón | Yes | Endangered |
| Burguete | Yes | Endangered |
| Las Retuertas horse | No (new) | — |
| Monte de País Vasco horse | Yes | Endangered |
| Pura Raza Galega horse (Galician spelling) | Yes, under the Castilian spelling “Pura Raza Gallega” | Endangered |
| Cavall Mallorquí | Yes, as “Mallorquina” | Endangered |
| Cavall Menorquí | Yes, as “Menorquina” | Endangered |
| Cavall Pirinenc Català | No (new) | — |
| Pura Raza Española (incluida la estirpe Cartujana) | Yes, as “Española” | De fomento |
| Hispano-Árabe | Yes | Endangered |
| Hispano-Bretón | Yes | Endangered |
| Jaca Navarra | Yes | Endangered |
| Losina | Yes | Endangered |
| Marismeña | Yes | Endangered |
| Monchina | Yes | Endangered |
| Pottoka | Yes | Endangered |
Result of the match: no breed dropped out; two were added (the Las Retuertas horse and Cavall Pirinenc Català); four were renamed, three of them into their regional languages. As Step 1b shows, the 2019 decree itself changed only the wording of the PRE entry (full name and the Carthusian strain, which the 2018 order had already added); the other additions and renames were already in Annex I after the 2018 order.
Outside the native group, both decrees list the same four “integrated” horse breeds of foreign origin (Arab, Anglo-Arab, English Thoroughbred and Spanish Trotter), and the 2019 text has a further category, “other breeds recognised in Spain”, holding one horse breed: the Spanish Sport Horse (C.D.E.). The 2008 text as issued has no such category, but its Annex I already listed the same horse under “other registered equids” (point 6), and the 2018 order kept it there.
Step 3: what “endangered” means now
Because the 2019 annex has no classes, the risk status first came from another clause. Transitional provision two of Real Decreto 45/2019 said that, until the National Zootechnics Commission set the degree of risk for each native breed, breeds classed as endangered under Annex I of Real Decreto 2129/2008 counted as threatened, and “the rest” of the native breeds counted as de fomento.
That stopgap has ended. Real Decreto 527/2023 (BOE of 21 June 2023, in force from 22 June 2023) replaced Annex I of the 2019 decree with a new annex, and its preamble says this ends the temporary regime of transitional provision two. The new annex has a general list of native breeds (section 1.A) and a separate list of threatened native breeds (section 1.B). We read the horse entries of both:
- General list, 1.A.e: the same sixteen native horse breeds as in 2019, with one more renaming (Cavall Menorquí becomes “Menorquina”). The PRE entry still reads “Pura Raza Española (incluida la estirpe Cartujana)”.
- Threatened list, 1.B.e: fifteen horse breeds, every native horse breed except the PRE. That includes the Las Retuertas horse and Cavall Pirinenc Català.
So the claim from the introduction holds in a new form today: fifteen of the sixteen native horse breeds are on the threatened list, and the PRE is the exception. We have not opened the ministry’s ARCA database or looked for changes after June 2023.
What to take away
- “Fourteen native breeds, all endangered except the Andalusian” is accurate for the 2008 decree as issued, and only until February 2012; it should carry that date.
- The catalogue now in force (Annex I of the 2019 decree as replaced in 2023) lists sixteen native horse breeds, fifteen of them as threatened; the PRE is the only one that is not.
- The 2019 decree empowers the minister to amend the catalogue (final provision six), and the catalogue has been replaced again since (royal decree of June 2023), so check for changes after June 2023 before quoting a count as current.
Method
Where a Spanish breed name begins with the word for “horse”, we give its distinctive part followed by “horse”; the full names are in the decrees. We downloaded both decrees, the three amending orders and the 2023 decree from the BOE on 31 October 2026, extracted the Annex I horse entries, and compared the 2008 and 2019 lists with a short Python script that maps the four renamed entries and reports additions and removals. The count and the 92.9% share can be repeated by hand from the lists above.
Sources
- BOE: Real Decreto 2129/2008, of 26 December, Annex I (Official Catalogue of Livestock Breeds of Spain). Opened 2026-10-31.
- BOE: Real Decreto 45/2019, of 8 February, Annex I, transitional provision two and final provision six (original text as shown on the BOE page). Opened 2026-10-31.
- BOE: Orden AAA/251/2012 of 9 February, Orden AAA/1357/2016 of 29 July and Orden APM/26/2018 of 11 January, each replacing Annex I of Real Decreto 2129/2008 (horse entries only). Opened 2026-10-31.
- BOE: Real Decreto 527/2023, of 20 June, preamble and Annex I (sections 1.A.e and 1.B.e, horse entries). Opened 2026-10-31.
Who this is for
A reader who has seen the claim that the PRE is the only Spanish native horse breed not at risk of extinction and wants to check it against the royal decrees, and see how the official list has changed.