In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered the island now known as Cuba, named it Hispaniola, and claimed it for the Spanish crown. Nineteen years later, Hernán Cortés, Spanish nobleman and officer, landed on Hispaniola, to serve in the local garrison. In 1518, with 570 men, 10 cannon and 16 horses, he invaded Mexico and began the conquest of a vast, hitherto unknown area, the Aztec Empire. The horses used had been brought across the Atlantic from Spain, from the southern province of Andalusia, known for raising breeds of mixed European, north African and Arabian origin. Cortés’s expedition had 11 studs (two of them pintos) and five mares.

The horses belonged to some of the officers and the light horsemen known as ginetes or genitors, after their characteristic heart-shaped Moorish leather-covered shields. Their main weapons were swords and javelins, but some also carried crossbows. Some had plate armour, but most used mail shirts or brigantines (armour consisting of small plates fastened to the inside of a fabric covering), a steel cap (morion – type of Spanish kettle-hat) and some leg and arm protection. Officers wore three-quarter armour and open helmets. Their horses were unprotected.

By 1521, Cortes had broken the resistance of the natives (whom he called Indians) by plunder, massacres and the cunning use of firearms and especially of the horses, which had previously been unknown to the Aztecs. The following year, with the help of reinforcements which brought his army to 850 men, 15 cannon and 86 horses, he conquered the territories of present-day Honduras and Guatemala, and was appointed governor of the newly acquired areas, which were named Nueva España (New Spain). The Spanish conquest did not stop there. In 1533, Francisco Pizarro, at the head of 180 men, two cannons and 27 horses brought down the Inca Empire in Peru, and in 1538 Gonzez de Jeliauesada conquered Colombia.

Although they were constantly at war, the Spaniards and the Indians had one aim in common: the Spaniards wanted to raise as many horses a s possible, the Indians to capture them and do the same. However carefully the Spaniards guarded their horses, the Mexican Indians were soon mounted. In 1598, the expedition led by Juan de Onante through the territory of modern New Mexico up to the present border of Kansas, sighted not a single horse in the area. Fifty years later, all the tribes of the western plains were mounted; the best known being the Apache and Comanche. The Indians especially prized pinto horses, so if a horse had no natural pattern, one was often painted on.