Interesting Andalusian Horse Facts (and the Horse in Pale Rider)

The Andalusian is a Spanish riding horse that has been recognized as its own breed since the 15th century. It is also called the Pura Raza Española, or PRE, which English speakers usually render as Pure Spanish Horse.

Most people land here from a film question, so that comes first: what horse did Clint Eastwood ride in Pale Rider and High Plains Drifter? After that, the facts about the breed itself, with a source for each one at the bottom of the page.

What horse did Clint Eastwood ride in Pale Rider and High Plains Drifter?

Many web pages say Eastwood rode an Andalusian in both films. We could not find a production record, a studio page, or a wrangler interview that names the breed, so we cannot call it confirmed. Fans disagree. In one long-running Clint Eastwood fan forum thread, a poster says both horses were Andalusians "for sure," and another poster says the pale gray in Pale Rider was a retired Thoroughbred that once ponied racehorses to the track, a story the poster remembered from a horse magazine and could no longer produce.

No source we read gives the name of either film horse. What the films do show is color. In Pale Rider the Preacher rides a pale horse on purpose, because the title comes from Revelation 6:8: "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him." In High Plains Drifter the stranger appears out of the desert heat haze on a pale horse as well, and one review of the film calls it a grey horse. Gray is also the most common Andalusian color, which is one reason the Andalusian answer is easy to believe.

Where the two films were shot

Neither film was shot in Spain. Pale Rider was filmed mostly in the Boulder Mountains and the Sawtooth National Recreation Area in central Idaho, just north of Sun Valley, in late 1984. The opening shots show the jagged Sawtooth peaks south of Stanley. The train station scenes were shot near Jamestown, California, and the gold rush town scenes in Columbia, California, both in Tuolumne County.

High Plains Drifter was shot on the southern shore of Mono Lake in California, where the crew built the whole town of Lago for the film. The Spain connection is Eastwood's earlier Italian westerns. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, for example, was filmed mostly in Spain, around the Tabernas Desert in Almería and near Burgos.

Eastwood is also reported to be allergic to horses. Looper includes it in a list of facts about him, and says it limits how long he spends in the saddle.

What an Andalusian looks like

The Andalusian is compact and strongly built, with a long arched neck, a short back, a rounded croup, and a thick mane and tail. The head has a straight or slightly convex profile, and breed standards penalize extreme dished or Roman noses. The legs are clean, with no heavy feathering.

Gray is the usual coat. In the United States about 80 percent of Andalusians are gray, around 15 percent are bay, and the remaining 5 percent are black, dun, palomino, or chestnut.

An old war horse with a short list of ancestors

Horses lived on the Iberian Peninsula for thousands of years before the breed had a name. Iberian horses were already rated as talented war horses by 450 BCE, and in later centuries the Spanish crown gave horses and export rights to favored nobles and royalty as gifts. Breed guides name Roman troops and the Crusaders of France among the people who rode Iberian horses into battle. By the 15th century the Andalusian was a distinct breed, and Spanish horses influenced the Lipizzaner, the Friesian, and German warmbloods such as the Hanoverian. Spanish jennets, the Andalusian's ancestors, also became the foundation of the Colonial Spanish Horse in the Americas.

Then the numbers fell. In the 19th century, wars, disease, and crossbreeding cut the breed down, and Napoleon's army took many horses. An epidemic in 1832 left only one small herd alive, at the monastery stud in Cartuja. Today every living Andalusian traces to a small number of horses kept by religious orders in the 18th and 19th centuries. Spain restricted exports until the 1960s, and the first Andalusians left the country in 1962. By 2010 there were more than 185,000 registered worldwide.

The Carthusian strain

Breeders treat the Carthusian, or Cartujano, as the purest Andalusian line. The line starts in the early 1700s, when the brothers Andrés and Diego Zamora bought a stallion named El Soldado and bred him to two mares. One of his sons, a dark gray colt named Esclavo, became the foundation sire. Around 1736 a group of mares sired by Esclavo was handed to Carthusian monks to settle a debt, and the monks kept the line going for centuries, even when the crown ordered them to add outside blood.

The monks' home was the Charterhouse of Jerez de la Frontera, built on land donated by the knight Don Álvaro Obertos de Valeto. Its first stone was laid on December 17, 1478. The purity story is where facts end: a 2005 study found that the split between Carthusian and other Andalusians is not supported by genetic evidence. Buyers still pay more for the bloodline. Esclavo passed a trait to his offspring that some breeders once used as proof of the bloodline: warts under the tail.

Are Andalusians gaited?

No. An Andalusian is not an ambling breed like the Paso Fino. Breed registry standards judge the movement for elevation, tempo, and cadence, and they discourage poor elevation, an uneven tempo, and winging, where the legs swing sideways from the knee down. The result is an extended, elevated, cadenced trot with a high knee, which is why dressage judges like the breed.

A 2001 study that compared Andalusians, Arabians, and Anglo-Arabians at the trot found that Andalusians flex their fore and hind joints more, which matches the lifted way of going you see in the photo.

Andalusian or Lusitano

The two breeds were one for a long time. Before the 1960s the Iberian horse was called the Andalusian in both Spain and Portugal. In 1966 Portugal adopted the name Lusitano after the two countries split their stud books. Some sources say the horses are genetically the same and differ only by the country they come from, and many registries, including the International Andalusian and Lusitano Horse Association, handle both.

The body differences are small. A Lusitano has a narrow head with a slightly convex profile and usually stands 15.2 to 15.3 hands, while an Andalusian head is straight or slightly convex. Lusitanos are still used in mounted bullfighting in Portugal, where the bull is not killed.

Coat markings and luck

Old breeders read white markings and hair whorls as signs of character and luck. In the early history of the breed, a horse with no white at all was thought to be ill-tempered, while certain facial markings meant honesty, loyalty, and endurance. A whorl near the root of the tail was a sign of courage and good luck, and a whorl where the horse could not see it, such as the temple or the heart, was the unluckiest. A breed article on horse's traits and personality lists the same beliefs. There is no evidence that any of it predicts behavior.

Temperament

Andalusians are known as intelligent, sensitive, and docile, and they learn quickly when handled with respect. Our guide to Andalusian temperament covers how that plays out in training and daily handling.

Read Next: Horse Heart Health Tips

Cost, adoption, and gear

Prices are in the FAQ below. Any horse needs feed, hoof care, and vet visits for as long as you keep it, whatever you paid, so a look at horse adoption is worth the time before you shop. Because Andalusians are sensitive and quick, a good set of horse training books helps you learn how to ask clearly.

Want to show more of your love for this animal? Check out our awesome collection of cute horse clothes made especially for the equine fan!

FAQ on Andalusian horse facts

How much do Andalusians cost?

On page one of the Andalusian category at DreamHorse on September 30, 2026, 36 horses showed a price. The lowest ask was $2,500, the middle ask was $15,000, and the highest was $50,000. A 2016 article on a jewelry brand's blog put the offspring of a foundation mare at $15,000 to $20,000 and crossbreds at $3,500 to $5,000.

How tall is an Andalusian?

The average adult is 15.1 1/2 hands, about 61.5 inches (156 cm), at the withers. Spain sets the minimum for registration at 15.0 hands (60 inches) for stallions and 14.3 hands (59 inches) for mares.

Is an Andalusian the same as a Pura Raza Española?

In most of the world, yes. Spain's registry, the ANCCE, uses the name PRE and says it alone can register a horse as a PRE. Several competing registries disagree about the definition, and a lawsuit over who may keep the Spanish stud book was in progress as of 2011.

Are Andalusians in many movies?

Yes, especially historical films and fantasy epics. Wikipedia names Gladiator, Braveheart, and The Lord of the Rings among them. For the two Eastwood westerns above, no source we found confirms the breed.

Sources

• Wikipedia, Andalusian horse (cites Oklahoma State University, the International Museum of the Horse, the FAO, Spanish order APA/3319/2002, and the 2001 and 2005 studies).
• Wikipedia, Lusitano.
• Wikipedia, Pale Rider and High Plains Drifter, for the filming locations and the pale horse in the title.
• Wikipedia, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, for the Spanish locations.
• Wikipedia, Álvaro Obertos de Valeto, for the founding of the Charterhouse of Jerez.
• Clint Eastwood fan forum, Clint's Horses, for the Andalusian and Thoroughbred claims about the film horse.
• I Review Westerns, High Plains Drifter review, for the pale gray horse in the opening.
• Looper, Things Clint Eastwood fans might not know, for the horse allergy report.
• DreamHorse, Andalusians for sale, checked September 30, 2026.
• Karina Brez blog, 17 Amazing Andalusian Horse Facts (archived 2019 copy), for the markings beliefs and the 2016 price figures.