America’s working saddle horse, the breed focuses on smoother gaited, efficiently built, athletic horses. The American Marchador has immense stamina and a docile personality.
Bred to work cattle over immense distances in comfort, the American Marchador is elegant and powerful. Their uses include working cattle, endurance racing, reining, jumping, dressage, and pleasure riding.
The American Marchador is a direct import from Brazil, the Mangalarga Marchador. The Marchador has been “The Horse of Brazil” since 1934. The Brazilian registry (Associacao Brasileira dos Criadores do Cavalo Mangalarga Marchador) consists of over 350,000 horses.
For nearly a century, the breed has been tailored to work the vast cattle operations of the country. Meeting the vigorous daily requirements of working cattle, the Marchador must be able to slide, spin, jump, and turn on a dime. Long hours of working cattle and covering immense distances also made comfort a breed necessity.
Nevertheless, the Marchador must move freely and not be hindered in any way. With comfort in mind, breeders developed a unique gait in the Marchador. Unlike typical “gaited breeds”, the Marchador can walk, trot, canter, and flat gallop like a racehorse.
In addition to a walk, trot, canter, and gallop, the Marchador has two other gaits. One being the “batida” is a diagonal gait almost identical to a trot. Unless specifically looking for the batida, the gait is only felt. It is easily mistaken for a trot. The comparison between a trot and batida is simply a split-second difference in hoof landing. In that split-second, the batida maintains triple hoof support giving comfort to the rider. The batida is the most versatile and athletic of the Marchador gaits.
The other gait being a “picada”, is lateral. This gait is more visible to the untrained eye. It is the smoothest of the Marchador gaits.
American Marchadors may possess one or both gaits. If only one gait is shown in a horse, the batida is the breeder’s choice for versatility. The picada is the choice for comfort.
All registries must have verifiable linage to the Brazilian Registry. DNA Testing is required. All new registries must be parent verified to both sire and dam.
All registries must be microchipped. Microchips are supplied by the Registrar.
All new registries must be gait inspected by the Registrar or Gait Inspector. All horses must possess at least one Marchador gait of either batida or picada.