The Campeiro is a

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

of small horse from Brazil. It is thought to descend from horses brought to South America in the sixteenth century. Because it has an

ambling gait An ambling gait or amble is any of several four-beat intermediate horse gaits, all of which are faster than a walk but usually slower than a canter and always slower than a gallop. Horses that amble are sometimes referred to as "gaited", particu ...

and comes from the area of the Araucária forests of southern Brazil, it may also be known as the Marchador das Araucárias.

History

The Campeiro is thought to descend from horses lost from the expedition of Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca in 1541 from Santa Catarina Island to the new Spanish settlement at

Asunción Asunción (, , , Guarani: Paraguay) is the capital and the largest city of Paraguay. The city stands on the eastern bank of the Paraguay River, almost at the confluence of this river with the Pilcomayo River. The Paraguay River and the Bay of ...

(now the capital of Paraguay). It is likely that among its ancestors there are also horses lost from other Spanish expeditions in the area. The horses became established as a feral population on the mainland, on the plateaux that are now parts of the states of Santa Catarina, Paraná, and

Rio Grande do Sul Rio Grande do Sul (, , ; "Great River of the South") is a Federative units of Brazil, state in the South Region, Brazil, southern region of Brazil. It is the Federative_units_of_Brazil#List, fifth-most-populous state and the List of Brazilian st ...

, and are characterised by the Araucária moist forest

biome A biome () is a biogeographical unit consisting of a biological community that has formed in response to the physical environment in which they are found and a shared regional climate. Biomes may span more than one continent. Biome is a broader ...

, where they became very numerous. The horses were first seen and reported in 1728 by the exploratory expedition of Francisco de Souza e Faria from the coast of Santa Catarina across the plateau in the direction of the settlement of

Curitiba Curitiba () is the capital and largest city in the state of Paraná (state), Paraná in Brazil. The city's population was 1,948,626 , making it the List of cities in Brazil by population, eighth most populous city in Brazil and the largest in ...

(now the capital of Paraná state). Three years later the horses were again seen, by , who captured some hundreds of them. When the first

fazenda A ''fazenda'' () is a plantation found throughout Brazil during the colonial period (16th - 18th centuries). They were concentrated primarily in the northeastern region, where sugar was produced in the ''engenhos'', expanding during the 19th ...

s were established in the area, some of the horses were captured and

selectively bred Selective breeding (also called artificial selection) is the process by which humans use animal breeding and plant breeding to selectively develop particular phenotypic traits (characteristics) by choosing which typically animal or plant mal ...

, particularly for their

, for many generations. A breed association, the Associação Brasileira de Criadores de Cavalo Campeiro, was formed in Curitibanos in 1976. The breed was officially recognised by the Ministério da Agricultura, Pecuária e Abastecimento, the Brazilian ministry of agriculture, in 1985, and a

stud-book A breed registry, also known as a herdbook, studbook or register, in animal husbandry and the hobby of animal fancy, is an official list of animals within a specific breed whose parents are known. Animals are usually registered by their breeders ...

was opened.

Characteristics

The Campeiro is a small horse: the average height at the

withers The withers is the ridge between the shoulder blades of an animal, typically a quadruped. In many species, it is the tallest point of the body. In horses and dogs, it is the standard place to measure the animal's height. In contrast, cattle ar ...

is and the average weight . The most common color is

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. The unrelat ...

, followed by

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a Gulf (geography), gulf, sea, sound (geography), sound, or bight (geogra ...

and

gray Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

Use

The Campeiro is raised almost exclusively on the and is usually managed extensively, although working horses and those in preparation for showing or competition are usually

stable A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals and livestock. There are many different types of stables in use today; the ...

d. The Campeiro is suitable for use as a saddle horse or for

drawing Drawing is a form of visual art in which an artist uses instruments to mark paper or other two-dimensional surface. Drawing instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, various kinds of paints, inked brushes, colored pencils, crayons, ...

light loads. It is often used for

cattle-herding Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands (pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anim ...

References

{{equine Horse breeds Horse breeds originating in Brazil