Barb Horses are known for being desert horses. With their exceptional hardiness and stamina, the breed makes quite the exceptional horse in general. Today, it is harder and harder to find a purebred Barb Horse because it has been crossbred throughout the years with so many other breeds. It is hard to say exactly when and where the Barb developed, but it is believed to date back as far back as the 8th century in Northern Africa. This may explain where it gets the endurance to deal with the desert climate.
There are actually multiple varieties of the Barb Horse, since they were crossbred with so many others. They include the Algerian, Moroccan, and the Tunisian horse. There has actually been some controversy over whether or not the Barb and Arabian (which the barb was commonly mistaken for) actually share an ancestor or if the Arabian is just simply a predecessor of the Barb.
The Barb has had quite the influence on many of the horses all around the world, aside from the Arabian, which also is said to have an influence worldwide. The American Quarter Horse, the Mustang, and the Appaloosa are some of the more common horses the Barb is believed to have genetic influence on.
The everyday Barb Horse has somewhat of an endangered strain to its legacy called the Abaco Barb, which was believed to be the result of a Spanish shipwreck on the island of Abaco in the Bahamas. They were once numbered at about 200 free roaming horses, but a series of events almost led to complete extinction. A herd started to revive and reach to about 35 horses in the early 1990s, but this number was cut by more than half. There have not been any newborns since 1998, and as of 2004, there were only a reported 12 of these horses left. Recent acts to preserve and re-populate the Abaco Barb have been running free on the island of Abaco and no Abacos are to be sold on the market.
A stallion by the name of "Capella" was made into a Breyer Model Horse in 2005, which is a company where they use the animals to mold figurines or display pieces. After the release of the Barb Horse with a mantel clock set, there were many requests sent in to have the horse sold separately.
There is also another smaller type of Barb Horse; it is referred to as the "Spahis." It is almost certain that is of the Arabian bloodline. It is mostly found in the mountainous regions of Morocco and Algeria. It was after the Second World War that many of the purebreds were sold out and as a result, their numbers fell. Their numbers still dwindle today, but preservation is a definite work in progress.
Today most the Barb can be found in greater numbers in the place where they first started, Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. They are particularly used as a mount for the Spanish Calvary.
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