The Carthusian' horse, sometimes known as Cartujano in Spanish, is a bloodline group within the Purebred Spanish horse (PRE). The earliest lineages were tracked by 1476, leading to claims its breed registry is one of the oldest in the world. The Carthusian lineage descends from a gray stallion named Esclavo, who became the property of the Carthusian monks of Andalusia. The monks made a success of this breeding, which became famous throughout Europe in the 18th century. The Carthusian horse is morphologically distinguished from other PRE lines by its lighter body and straighter head profile, with the possible presence of bony protuberances. The Carthusian coat is usually gray. The Carthusian is used as a dressage horse and is well suited to combined driving. Carthusian breeding is concentrated in its birthplace, Andalusia, around Jerez de la Frontera, Badajoz and Cordoba.
Denomination
The Spanish name for this line, Cartujano, translates into English as Carthusian and into French as Chartreux or Cheval des Chartreux. This horse is generally classified as a PRE, so it is not a separate breed.
History
Considered by supporters as the purest and most prestigious PRE descendant, the Carthusian is claimed to have one of the oldest breed registries in the world. There are attested traces dating back as far as the 15th century. This lineage has been bred and preserved by Carthusian monks since at least 1476. There was a spiritual dimension to this breeding, as evidenced by an account of the perception of God's face in a horse's eye. These monks exerted a strong influence on horse breeding in their region, and their horses were long considered the best in Christian Europe.
The Yeguada de la Cartuja (Carthusian stud farm), near Jerez, held over 700 animals in 1700. The Carthusian bloodline was really created in the early 18th century, when two Spanish brothers, Andrés and Diego Zamora, bought a stallion named El Soldado and presented it with two mares. The mares were descended from horses purchased by the King of Spain and had been placed at Aranjuez, one of Spain's oldest stud farms. One of El Soldado's descendants, a dark gray colt named Esclavo, became the founding sire of the lineage. This gray stallion is considered the perfect horse of its time. It has an abundant mane and has an excellent temperament. It is also known to have carried "warts under its tail" (in reality, melanomas), which it is said to have passed on to its offspring, so much so that breeders have long regarded the presence of these warts as proof that an animal is indeed descended from Esclavo. Esclavo was sold to Don Pedro Picado in Portugal, but a group of mares he had sired were given to Carthusian monks to settle a debt, around 1736. Other animals from these lineages are absorbed into the main Andalusian breed. The stock given to the monks is bred as a special line, known as the Zamorano. Over the next century, the line was guarded by Carthusian monks, to the point of defying royal orders to cross these horses with Neapolitan and Central European breeds. The monks did, however, introduce the Arabian and the Barb to improve their stock.
Before the Napoleonic Wars, a breeder named Romualdo Carrera bred horses of renown. An emissary of the King of Prussia offered 50 000 reals in 1803 for the purchase of a stallion born in Jerez. The initial stock of Carthusian horses was considerably depleted during the Spanish War of Independence: only one foal from a Carthusian stallion was recovered from the Carrera stud. The strain would have disappeared had it not been for the efforts of the Zapata family. As a result, the name Zapata is sometimes used to designate Carthusian horses. In 1835, the convent's stud farm was dissolved, and its management reverted to the Spanish state, along with a few selected breeders. The dissolution of the Carthusian religious order established at the Carthusian monastery in Jerez led to the sale and dispersal of the horses to a number of private breeders in the region.
In the 1980s, Carthusian horses were particularly sought-after in Spain. Buyers paid high prices for members of the lineage. The usage of a horse from the lineage by wine merchant Thomas Terry popularized the name "Terry line" for Carthusian horses.