The Ameritano is defined first by its parentage and second by the qualities that parentage was chosen to produce. This standard describes both: what a horse must be to register, and what the breed is working toward.
Eligibility
Eligibility is a matter of documented parentage, not of appearance. A horse qualifies for registration when:
- One parent is registered with the National Foundation Quarter Horse Association.
- The other parent is registered as a Lusitano with IALHA or APSL.
- Parentage is verified through UC Davis, unless the horse has already been parentage verified and registered with a qualifying registry such as IALHA or American Azteca.
Where the Iberian parent is an IALHA S/P — a Lusitano and Andalusian cross — it must be a minimum of 75% Lusitano.
[DECISION: the site describes the Quarter Horse parent as “high percentage” without stating a threshold. NFQHA’s own research tier sits at 85%. Does AHR require a minimum NFQHA percentage, and if so what is it? This is the most consequential unanswered question in the standard, because it determines eligibility.]
An Iberian parent that is an Azteca does not qualify. This is a distinction the breeding record makes consistently: foals out of Azteca ‘A’ mares are recorded as Lusitano crosses or Lusitano Sport Horses, while foals out of qualifying S/P mares are recorded as Ameritanos. The rule is that the Iberian parent must be a Lusitano or a 75%-or-greater S/P — not a horse that already carries Quarter Horse blood.
Put the other way round: all Ameritanos qualify as Aztecas, but very few Aztecas qualify as Ameritanos.
Note that the 75% rule applies to the parent, not to the foal. A 75% Lusitano S/P bred to a 100% NFQHA horse produces a foal that is 37.5% Lusitano, and that foal is an Ameritano.
No conformation inspection is required. A horse that meets the parentage requirements is an Ameritano.
[CONFIRM: is that correct? If the registry intends to add inspection or grading later, say so here rather than implying the door is closed.]
General Impression
The Ameritano should read as a substantial, balanced horse with visible Iberian influence in the head and neck and visible Quarter Horse influence through the hindquarter. It should look capable of a day’s work on a ranch and of a dressage test in the same week, without looking like a compromise between the two.
Substance without heaviness, and elegance without frailty, are the balance the cross aims for.
Foundation Bloodlines
The Ameritano is not a random cross of two breeds. Both sides descend from identifiable and deliberately chosen lines, and the standard is best understood as an attempt to hold onto what those lines contribute.
On the Quarter Horse side, the foundation traces to Poco Bueno. The herd sires behind the program — Little Steel Dust, a triple-bred grandson of Poco Bueno, together with Pocos Gray Comet, Jaz Poco Silverado, Jaz Poco Acero, Jaz Poco Bravo and RF Tee J Steel Dust — were bred to Poco Bueno mares and produced intelligent, athletic horses with superb dispositions, predominantly black and grulla.
On the Lusitano side, the foundation sire of the Ameritano is E Preto, a 16.1-hand black stallion by Damasco out of Pistola, IALHA National Champion, very high percentage Veiga, and carrying Malmequer, Quieto and Oeste in his pedigree. His maternal grandsire Dolar was a 17.1-hand bullfighting horse. Later Lusitano sires include Onasis das Faias, an imported son of the Olympic horse Escorial, and Xerez de Quintana, a Grand Prix stallion imported from Brazil.
The Veiga influence matters to the standard. Veiga horses were bred for the bullring, where agility, courage and instantaneous response to the rider decided whether horse and rider went home. That is the same set of qualities the Foundation Quarter Horse brings to cattle work, arrived at by a different route, and it is why the two lines combine as well as they do.
Conformation
Head and neck. An expressive head with a generous eye. The neck is set on well and carried naturally upward, reflecting the Lusitano contribution, with sufficient length to permit collection.
Body. A deep girth and well-sprung ribs. The back is short to medium in length and strongly coupled to the loin. The hindquarter is powerful and rounded, carrying the Quarter Horse’s capacity for a quick, athletic effort.
Bone and limb. Ample bone for the horse’s height. Correct, clean limbs with well-defined joints. The breeding program has prioritized good feet for four decades, and soundness of foot is expected rather than exceptional.
[DECISION: this section is drafted from the breeding goals already published on the homepage, not from an adopted standard. It reads as plausible breed language, but the registry should treat every sentence as a proposal to approve, amend, or strike.]
Height and Weight
One of the stated goals of the cross is added height over the Foundation Quarter Horse parent. The Lusitano foundation sire of the breed, E Preto, stood 16.1 hands.
[DECISION REQUIRED: 16.1 hands for the foundation sire is a real anchor, but it is one horse and it is the Lusitano parent, not an Ameritano. No mature Ameritano height appears on either site. The registry should measure a representative sample of mature registered horses and state a range from actual data. Do not extrapolate a range from the parent breeds — a standard built on inference will be contradicted by the first horse someone puts a stick to.]
Color
Ameritanos recorded to date are grullo and grulla, black, dun, red dun, apricot dun and silver grullo. The dun and grullo coloring comes from the Foundation Quarter Horse side, where the breeding band has been predominantly black and grulla for decades and several horses are homozygous for black and for dun. The Lusitano foundation sire was black.
Color is therefore a recognizable feature of the breed as it currently exists, without being a requirement of it.
[DECISION REQUIRED: the above is an observation of the horses currently pictured on the site, not a policy. State plainly whether all colors are accepted — most modern registries accept all — and whether any pattern is excluded. Saying nothing invites the assumption that unlisted colors are ineligible, which given the strong grullo identity of this breed is a real risk.]
Movement
Movement should be elegant and free through the shoulder, with natural animation and the lateral suppleness the Lusitano is known for, while retaining the agility and quick, close-to-the-ground athleticism of the Foundation Quarter Horse. Ameritanos are frequently described by their owners as unusually smooth to ride over distance.
Temperament
Temperament is not a secondary consideration in the Ameritano. It is the trait the breeding program has selected for first, ahead of conformation, movement, and color.
Both foundation lines were selected for mind. The Poco Bueno-descended Quarter Horse band was chosen for disposition above all else, and the Lusitano foundation sire was chosen for what his breeders describe as versatility and a fantastic mind, demonstrated at a working equitation clinic where flags, a garrocha pole and a mechanical bull did not faze him.
The Ameritano should be intelligent, willing, courageous, and genuinely interested in the company of people. It should be trainable by an amateur without being dull, and forward without being anxious. Cow sense is expected. A horse that is beautiful and difficult does not meet this standard.
Faults
[DECISION REQUIRED: the standard needs to distinguish faults from disqualifications, and to state whether either affects registration eligibility at all. Given that registration is parentage-based, the likely answer is that faults are advisory guidance to breeders rather than grounds for refusal — but that must be stated explicitly, or the section will be read as a rejection criterion.]
Purpose
The Ameritano is bred to be versatile in earnest rather than nominally. It is intended to be competitive in dressage, Working Equitation, Western dressage and cowboy dressage; useful in reining, cutting and all ranch work; sound enough for mounted shooting and jousting; and dependable as a trail, pleasure and family horse. A horse that excels in one of these and is unusable in the others has met half the standard.