The horses of Quaternary period were of similar appearance to those of today, as may observed in the famous cave paintings of Almira (Santander) - the photo.
Since ancient times two types of horses have coexisted in the Iberian Peninsula: the rather small, sturdy sort of pony characteristic of the moist, mountainous of the North, and the horse of the warm, dry lands of the South, which stands somewhat taller.

According to Sotto y Montes, it was in Spain that the crossing and ultimate blending of the two breeds of primitive European horses took place. On the one there were the Celtic horses, which probably entered the Peninsula from the North (Tarradell) and were descended from the rectilinear Tarpan of Southern Russia: other, the horse of the Magreb, which came the southern approaches from Egypt and were the result of the successive crossbreeding of Arian and Mongolian horses, though with a preponderance of the latter, almost all of which were bred by the Berbers.

This saddle-horse type from the south is supposed to have been used by mounted warriors forty or fifty centuries before the Christian era.
Julius Caesar, who was a consummate horseman, was admirer of the Iberian horse.

When the Moors invaded the Peninsula they were surprised to find horses which they described as "better and more numerous" than their own. This appreciation is exemplified in the fact that the presents sent by the 9th-century caliph of Cordova, Omaides, to Constantinople and Baghdad included, among other things, ten beautiful female slaves from Cadiz and ten magnificent Spanish horses.

In any case the Andalusian horse became famous all over Europe, entering on period of expansion and consolidation that coincided with the formation of the Spain Empire, on whose realms " the sun never set"