Murgese‘s origins are connected with the land of the arid and rocky hills of Puglia from which it takes its name: The Murge.
In particular The Murgese is the expression of the South-East Murge, the land of the “trulli” and the “grotte”, a unique landscape of about 80 thousands hectares with a conformation that makes it particularly suitable for the cattle breeding.


Here, in the halfway between the Adriatic and the Ionic seas, the Murgese evolved as the expression of a territory from which it takes it attitudes: the climate of the Murge characterized by cold winters and dry summers gives the Murgese its resilience and strength. The presence of karst rocky gives Murgese his firmness and balance for this reason they are exceptional for cross country riding.

Thanks to its pedo-climatic environment Puglia has always been a land of horses.

Murgese origins date back the XIII century, from the legendary war-horses Of the Emperor Federico II of Svevia.
The Emperor ruled over the tormented destiny of the Holy Roman Empire from 1212 to 1250 and along with his passion for horses held a great love for Puglia where he built his mist beautiful residence: the Castle del Monte considered by the experts a real jewel of medieval architecture.
The Emperor ordered his squires to breed his horses in the hard habitat of Murge in order to obtain strong arms and hoofs. In fact, we know that the Emperor had three stud farm in this land.
Federicians methodologies in breeding and selection are been handed on from “De Medicina equorum” by Giordano Ruffo of Calabria who was the Emperor’ squire and one of the first Italian veterinary science scholar.
Federico II of Svevia loved the Murgese even because its attitude in the falconry. This was the Emperor’s favourite sport in fact he wrote the most famous falconry treatise: De arte venandi cum avibus.

From XV to XVI century the Republic of Venice chose the land of Murge to have its most important stud farm named “La Cavallerizza” which still exists.The Serenissima gave great importance to Murge and expressed a particular appreciation for this territory for being the appropriate land for the horse breeding. In fact the murgese was exceptional for every kind of uses: military, civil and sporting.

In XVI century the famous horse race of CONVERSANO became important. In fact the Conversano stallion, one of the six ancestors of the Lipizzaner race, comes from the stud farm of the Earl Acquaviva D’Aragona, Andrea Matteo and his direct descendant Giulio Antonio IV, who beloved horses.

In 1926 the Ministry of Agriculture in collaboration with the then Regio Deposito Stalloni in Foggia, now Istituto Regionale Incremento Ippico, and the Agricultural Department of Bari, now the Assessorato Regionale Agricoltura, started the selection of the Murgese horse in Puglia.

For this reason after the Second World War the need was felt for an organization that would concern itself with the protection and promotion of this ancient race of native horses, particularly by breeders of the horses who had preserved the race through the difficult war years.
In 1948, on the initiative of the Member of Parliament Alfonso Motolese, member of the Constituent Assembly and Mayor of Martina Franca, a group of 22 breeders, among who we remind Alberico Motolese and Alfonso Basile founded the Association of Breeders of the Murge Horse and the Donkey of Martina Franca, the first association of its kind in Italy with its main office in Martina Franca.


The Association gave an important impulse to the promotion of this horse race thanks to the enthusiasm and the passion of its promoters and to the ability of Alberico Motolese and Alfonso Basile, its Presidents (Alberico Motolese from 1948 to 1975, Alfonso Basile from 1975 to 1995). The race was preserved by interbreed and was selected according to its pureness; thanks to a valid action of selection, promotion and preservation in pureness, the Murgese represents now days the unique Italian horse production. This was possible above all thanks to the close collaboration with the Regio Deposito Stalloni of Foggia then guided by the colonel Agostino D'Alessandro, a zoo technician of great ability

In December 1956 the Association organized in Martina Franca the firs Horse Fair of the Murge horse and the Donkey of Martina Franca which has been held annually at the first weekend in December.
The winner of the first Fair was the “Imperiale” Stallion coming from the San Paolo stud farm.

The Murgese popularity in the whole Italian territory made dr. Alfonso Basile to found in 1990 the A.N.A.M.F. (Associazione nazionale degli Allevatori del cavallo Murgese e dell’Asino di Martina Franca) which has its main office in Martina Franca and whose President was the same dr. Alfonso Basile until 1995.