The horse is small. Fourteen hands, maybe fifteen. Roman nose, short back, legs built for rock. It does not look like the horse on the poster.
The Barb — also called the Berber horse — originated somewhere on the North African coastal plain, in what is now Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Its history is older than any studbook. Some geneticists believe it predates the Arabian. Others argue they share an ancestor. Nobody has settled the question. What everybody agrees on is this: without the Barb, half the breeds in the modern world would not exist.
When the Amazigh crossed into Iberia in the 8th century, they brought their horses. Three hundred years of Umayyad breeding on the peninsula crossed the Barb with local Spanish stock to produce the Andalusian. The Andalusian became the prestige horse of Europe. It was bred into the Lipizzaner. Shipped to the Americas, it became the foundation of the Criollo, the Paso Fino, the Mustang, the Quarter Horse.
In England, three stallions founded the Thoroughbred. One of them — the Godolphin Arabian — was almost certainly a Barb. He arrived from Tunisia via Paris, where he was reportedly found pulling a water cart. A Quaker named Edward Coke bought him. His grandson, Matchem, sired a racing dynasty. The breed that runs at Ascot and the Kentucky Derby traces back, in part, to a North African horse that was mistaken for an Arabian because Europeans could not tell the difference.
The distinction matters. The Arabian is dished-face, delicate, bred for beauty. The Barb is convex-nosed, compact, bred for survival. It has five lumbar vertebrae instead of six. It thrives on poor forage and rough terrain. It can gallop in short explosive bursts and then walk for hours across broken ground without faltering. Amazigh horsemen did not breed for show. They bred for war, for mountains, for desert.
Today Morocco has three recognised breeds: the purebred Barb, the Arabian, and the Arab-Barb cross. The Arab-Barb is the most common — roughly 185,000 across North Africa as of 2010. The purebred Barb is rare and getting rarer. SOREC, the Royal Society for the Encouragement of the Horse, maintains the studbook and runs the breeding programme. Without it, the pure line would likely disappear into the cross.
The place you will see Morocco’s horses in motion is the fantasia — the tbourida. Teams of riders in white, mounted on Arab-Barbs, charge in formation and fire their rifles in a single coordinated volley. The powder smoke hangs in the air. The horses know the drill better than the riders. The fantasia is not a re-enactment. It is the last living expression of Amazigh cavalry tactics, performed at moussems across the country from spring to autumn.
The horses that are not performing have harder lives. In the medinas, horses and donkeys still haul goods through streets too narrow for vehicles. In the countryside, they plough and carry and pull. SPANA — the Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad — has run free veterinary clinics in Morocco since the 1920s, when a British mother and daughter named Kate and Nina Hosali saw working animals suffering in the souks and decided to act. SPANA’s Marrakech clinic treats around 1,500 animals a month. They run a licensing scheme for the city’s 300 calèche horses, with ankle bands, regular health checks, and nine water troughs built on the main carriage routes.
In the palmerie outside Marrakech, Jarjeer — a donkey and mule refuge — takes in animals too injured or old to work. One of the foals saved by SPANA’s vets lives there now, among the other survivors.
The Barb gave the world the Thoroughbred, the Andalusian, the Mustang. It shaped the cavalry of empires. It is still here — smaller than you expected, tougher than it looks, standing in a field outside Meknes or trotting through the dust of a rural souk. The horse that built half the breeds on earth. Most people have never heard its name.
The Barb horse originated on the coastal plain between Morocco and Tunisia. The tbourida festival at El Jadida puts three hundred of them on the field.
Tell us about your trip →The Facts
- —Barb (Berber) horse: 14-15 hands, Roman nose, short back
- —Largest lion subspecies in the wild — males up to 270kg
- —May predate the Arabian horse genetically
- —Amazigh brought Barbs to Iberia in 8th century
- —Barb × Spanish stock = Andalusian horse
- —Andalusian became prestige horse of European courts
- —Without the Barb, half modern breeds would not exist
- —Legs built for rock, not flat ground
Sources
- Palmer, Robert. "The Master Musicians of Jajouka." Rolling Stone, 1971
- Burroughs, William S. Liner notes, Brian Jones Presents the Pipes of Pan at Joujouka. Rolling Stones Records, 1971
- Kapchan, Deborah. Traveling Spirit Masters: Moroccan Gnawa Trance and Music in the Global Marketplace. Wesleyan University Press
- Davis, Stephen. Hammer of the Gods: The Led Zeppelin Saga. William Morrow
- Bourdain, Anthony. Parts Unknown, Season 11, Episode 2: "Morocco." CNN, 2018
