Without the bull there is no bullfighting
A brief explanation of bulls' origins. They ain't exactly grown in Paris.
Bulls are part of our culture. Ancient civilizations left trace of this animal in their cave paintings. It is known that man hunted during the Paleolithic Era, among other species considered dangerous, the so-called Uro, or wild bull which served both as food and as a source for working tools. It seems to be that the primitive man's way of hunting, which consisted of forcing the prey to run without warning toward a cliff, can already be considered the birth of bullfighting.
Uro, which became extinct in Europe during Medieval times, is the wild ancestor of all the tame bovine breeds existing today. The current bullfighting bull has, among all the direct descendants of Uro, best maintained its features.
It is in XVIII century when the first stockbredeers devoted to breeding fighting bulls emerge.
Important Spanish rivers are useful to sort out the great breeds of fighting bulls, since these breeds were born on the banks of great river basins. Therefore, we have the following founding breeds:
Jijona and Toros de la Tierra Breed: The end of XVI century. They come from Ciudad Real, Albacete, Toledo Mountains, Jarama's riverbank and Colmenar Viejo in Madrid. <
Navarra Breed: The end of XVII century. They come from Navarra and towns on the Ebro River's left bank in Zaragoza.
Morucha Castellana Breed: The beginning of XVIII century. They come from El Raso de Portillo (Valladolid) and, as a class, from the neighbouring basin of River Duero.
Cabrera Breed: Middle of XVIII century. They come from Utrera (Sevilla). Formed through cattle purchased from Carthusian and Dominican monks of Jerez de la Frontera and Sevilla.
Branches of Gallardo (from Puerto de Santa María, possibly crossed with Navarra breed bulls), Espinosa (From Arcos de la Frontera, incorporating bulls from Salamanca)and Freire (Alcalá del Río) arose from the same monk stock.
Vazqueña Breed: Middle of XVIII century. Native to Utrera (Sevilla). The same origin as Cabrera breed, into which Vistahermosa breed bulls were incorporated at the end of XVIII century.
Vistahermosa: Second Half XVIII century. Native to Utrera (Sevilla) and formed with Hermanos Rivas' bulls and other breeds of unknown origin, which surely came from tithes.
All the cattle we have today for bullfighting comes from the six previous founding breeds. In the U.C.T.L's cattle raising, the purity of the chief descendents have disappeared in the breeds from Navarra, Jijona and de la Tierra y Morucha.
In current times, from a genetic point of view, we can distinguish between 28 lines distributed according to two esential criteria:
Lines/Breeds of pure origin which have survived up to today and whose name is in red in the following list.
Lines /breeds of diverse origin which have determined and transmitted their own morphological and behavioural features through their stockbreeders selection, despite their diverse origin or crossing provenance.
Typology
Fighting bull typology can be classified depending on the hair and the horns:
 The Bull's hair o "pinta" is the result of the interaction between the skin colour and hair colour covering it. Therefore, the fighting bull (and generally all cattle) has three hair colours, from which a wide range of variations appear depending on the shades and combinations themselves mixed with the animal's natural pigmentation. The shades are white, red and black. Taking into account, the main color is considered as the foundation and variations are complements, causing infinite names (palomo, retinto, bronceado...)as you can see in our glossary.
The horn is a skin production situated on both sides of the forehead. It is divided into three parts: near part or "cepa," middle part or "pala" and distant part or "piton." Horns can be classsified according to their colour, thickness, length, shape and symmetry.
We appreciate UCTL for this information.
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