Baca Barb Horse Conformation
Created for The Center for America's First Horse, Inc. by Wingspan Arts, Intl. Copyright 2010. Used by permission.
The Baca horse is a unique, elegant looking horse with light, airy movement, displaying a great deal of suspension in their gaits. They have average knee action and it is the notable freedom of their shoulder and well angled hip that give them the natural ability to collect and extend their gaits with ease. They tend to have longer legs than other strains, but with ample bone size. They are not a thick, muscular horse, but one with smooth muscles with lightness to them. Their faces show strong Iberian profiles, but are not large boned heads, most often they have almond shaped eyes. Their foreheads tend to be wider, with smaller ears.
The standard height is 13.2 - 14.3 hands with weight between 650-850 lbs. There have been a few individual horses that have exceeded 14.3 hands. Since the inception of the current breeding program, the offspring are showing the potential for developing into a slightly larger horse of 14.3-15 hands, yet still keeping the desired type. Reaching their genetic potential may be due to proper nutrition and management practices of the new generation of mares and foals.
The range of colors most seen in the Baca horses are chestnut, red roan, grey, black and bay. Varnish roan and appaloosa are present, but many of those lines have been lost over the years. Rabicano (a sprinkling of white hairs varying from slight to more extensive), does occasionally present itself within the strain. It has not been recorded that there are any dun or pinto colored horses of 100% Baca strain horses.