History
The San Fratellano comes from San Fratello, in the Nebrodi mountains in the province of Messina in Sicily. The horses developed and were bred in a native habitat that resulted in a strong, powerful type known for their endurance.
A Lombard princess, Adelaide del Vasto, married Roger I of Sicily, a Norman noble, in the 11th century AD. Sicily was ruled by Norman warlords at the time, and Princess Adelaide del Vasto brought to Sicily her retinue, including a number of knights and their horses. To this day the people of San Fratello speak a Lombard dialect, different from the Sicilian dialect of surrounding areas. The San Fratellano horse is said to have descended from the horses of the Lombard knights.
The breed has received infusions of Anglo-Arab, Spanish Anglo-Arab, Salerno and Nonius blood, and has remained quite true to type. It resembles its fellow Italian breed, the Maremmano. Breeding stock is carefully selected for propagation, and most colts are trained young as pack horses.
Read more about this topic: San Fratello Horse
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The history of men’s opposition to women’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of that emancipation itself.”
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)
“The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records between the material and the moral nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The history of American politics is littered with bodies of people who took so pure a position that they had no clout at all.”
—Ben C. Bradlee (b. 1921)