Recently while I was researching a new Breyer Horse model, I ran across a horse breed I had never heard of: the Spanish Jennet.  In fact, a lot of source seem to be confusing or conflating the breed of horse of the Breyer model - the Knabstrupper - with the Spanish Jennet.  

Just to clarify the situation, the Knabstrupper is a breed of horse developed in the early 1800s from a single spotted mare.  The mare may or may not have been of Jennet blood, but the Knabstrupper could plausibly be seen as an extension of the Jennet breed.  However, the Jennet itself is an ancient breed - literally ancient, as it was first documented in the prehistoric Paleolithic cave art of Lascaux and Altamira.  In other words, the Knabstrupper is an offshoot of the Spanish Jennet.

The Jennet is a spotted horse - according to some sources, it is THE spotted horse.  It is certainly eye-catching, and there is no doubt that its beauty was part of the reason why it was originally cultivated as a breed.  The spotted European horses were mixed with the domesticated horses of Asia, which were tamed on the steppes of Mongolia around 1500 BC.

Spotted horses have frequently appeared in ancient art, typically associated with royalty.  Spotted horses are featured in the art of ancient Egypt, where they are depicted as pulling the chariots of kings and queens.  The unusual colorations of the Spanish Jennet seems almost custom designed to catch the eye of riders, and ensure that the genes for the spots and splashes of color would be spread across the world with the advancement of any civilization that relied on horses.

In Spain, the brood stock of horses in general was strongly influenced by the Romans, who brought their cavalry horses with them, which blended with the Spanish Jennet to create the Andalusian.  Another influence was the Moors, whose delicate Arabian horses helped to create the Spanish Barb.

When Columbus selected 25 horses to bring on his voyage to America, he chose Spanish Barbs and Jennets.  Their bloodline, with the genes for spotting, is what escaped and went feral in the New World, to become the mustang form that is known now as the Appaloosa.  (Horses had been present in the New World, but were wiped out in the Paelolithic era.  They were reintroduced as escapees from the European explorers, and re-colonized North America.  Mustangs are technically a feral animal, not a wild animal.)

The actual word "Jennet" originally referred to a type of horse - small but light, and best suited to being ridden, as opposed to a pony, cart horse, or draft horse.  The invention of "breeds" as such, with breed registries and breed standards, is a fairly modern one.  Until the 1700s and 1800s, people of every region broke down horse categories based on the type of work they were meant to do, more like the modern categories like "hunter" or "draft."  

The Spanish Jennet is also known as a gaited horse, exhibiting the Paso gait even as untrained colts.  It is therefore sometimes described as one of the Paso horses, although the Paso Fino and Peruvian Paso breeds both look down upon the spotted, unusual coat colors exhibited by the Spanish Jennet.