As ancient people, known as the Ginetes, lived in the southern Andalusian Peninsula and became skilled horsemen and warriors. They passed their skills on to other people who conquered and inhabited the Iberian Peninsula. According to Maddison-Greenwell, "The Tartessions, for example, cultivated and the breeding of livestock, and the Iberians developed the use of the bull-wise horse for cattle work, thus bringing about the birth of the ranching industry and the long-standing partnership of the stockman and his horse."
The influences of other people such as the Romans in the third century BC, the Vandals, and the Moors further developed the breed. The Visgoths, under Roman rule, forced the Vandals south into North Africa, and the Vandals took their Sorraia horses with them. The Moors, arrivign in the Iberian Peninsula in AD711, had their Barb horses which carried the blood of the Vandals' horses. The Barbs were then crossed with native Iberian horses, producing the jennet, a forebearer of the modern Andalusian. In the fifteenth century, Carthusian monks from Cartuja in Jerez, began to protect the true Spanish riding styple: a la jineta. The monks' interest in Spanish horses had reached to the time of El Cid at the time of the arrival of the Moors in Spain. They also were the first to develop an organized breeding program. For many centuries they continued to maintain the original bloodlines of their Carthusian (Cartujano) horses.
As the Moors were being driven from Spain, the Spaniards were beginning to explore into the new world. The Conquistadores rode into the New World on their Spanish horses, thus then crossing with native stock in the New World. The Spanish horse has long had a role in improving other breeds. It also became important during the Renaissance period, providing the base stock for the development of the Lipizzaner breed. During the reign of King Philip II, equine herds were organzied throughout the kingdom which enabled breeding of the Pure Spanish Horse to reach a height. He estabished the Royal Stables at Cordoba where only the best stallions and mares were gathered. Over time, the Royal Stud Farm became the National Stud Farm., where horse breeding was highly regulated. Spanish horses were regarded and held in high esteem.