Draw the free horses.

Behaviours, landscapes and interactions.

While examples of horses accompanied by humans abound in artistic representations, horses are more rarely depicted in their natural state in the company of their fellow creatures. It’s true that being able to observe them in this way is a completely different approach to staying in the comfort of a stable or riding school and their presence in wild areas has practically disappeared. In their natural state, horses express themselves without the intermediary of human codes, moving rapidly from a peaceful, detached attitude to an unpredictable display of speed and energy.

The presence of so-called ‘wild’ horses has been observed in Portugal for a very long time, particularly in the mountainous regions of the north of the country. The characteristics of these brown ponies, averaging between 1.20m and 1.35m in height, are similar to those of other equids found all along Europe’s Atlantic seaboard and known as the Cantabrian-Pyrenean breeds (Pottokas, Asturcón, Jaca Navarra, Losino, etc.). Called Garrano in Portuguese, this name means ‘little horse’, just like its Scottish cousin the Garron*.

Although on the verge of extinction, the traditional method of free grazing in the mountains is still practised by most farmers, and it is not uncommon to come across groups of them on walks in the Peneda-Gerês Park, where they are most numerous.

*from Gaelic gearran.