Sorraia basic information

Height : 12.2 - 13 hh.

Short head, black tipped ears, strong neck, deep compact body, short legs, low set tail. The Sorraia is always dun or grullo in color, with a dark face/muzzle area, black dorsal stripe, black-tipped ears, usually zebra stripes on the legs, and sometimes a stripe across the shoulders, or even stripes across neck, shoulders, and back. The black mane and tail are fringed by lighter-colored, often almost white, hair. The pure Sorraia does not have white markings, and does not show infusion of either Oriental or North European blood. Sorraia foals are born with a zebra-like pattern all over.

The head is somewhat long, with a convex profile. The eyes are set high, the ears are fairly long; the neck is long and slender, the withers are prominent and well defined; the back is of medium length and straight; the croup is sloping, but not steeply dropping, and rafter-shaped when viewed from front or behind; the tail set is not particularly high or low, but the tail is never held very high, not even when the horse is excited; the chest is deep and narrow; the shoulder is long; the legs are straight with rather long, round cannon bones, well defined tendons, long, sloped pasterns, and hard hooves of dark color.