Spanish horses vs Warmbloods for dressage: which do you prefer?

Spanish horses can be quite short through thier backs, makes it very easy to collect them, not so easy to extend them and difficult to get them supple enough.

They are generaly a very trainable breed and have a lovely nature but they are not what the modern dressage judge is looking for,

Which is very sad.
The job of a judge is to say if the horse is correct trained and the team does a good job, not how the horse look like.

I do prefer iberian breds, they are very healthy, have a good character and if you have ever ridden a passage on a Lusitano you know what I am talking about

I don't believe they're judging the horse based on its looks at all.

As faye said, suppleness and extensions are the challenges of an Iberian horse, and that's where a lot of them get marked down which is why they generally don't do as well as Warmbloods who can, do both well. Obviously not every WB can collect as well as they extend, but if they can do both well than they'll almost always do better than an Iberian who does collection excellently but extension poorly.

No not every judge is like that.
Itīs totally okay, to say, this extended trott is better so you get a better grade.
But I do think that the judges should difference between Kur and "normal" dressage challenges.
In normal challenges, I think, they should just judge how the horse is ridden.
When it comes to a Kur you should even look if it looks better, because you just canīt say a Iberian Horse is worser as a Warmblood in extensions, because they just canīt do it as much as Warmbloods because of their body.
Do you understand what I mean?
I canīt really describe it in english

I know what you mean.

The thing is, while dressage is subjective sometimes, a judge has to score according to certain standards. Sometimes an Iberian can't meet the standards in certain movements so they're always going to score baseline lower than a horse that exceeds the standards of a movement. Yes, it is because an Iberian is built differently, but then that means that if people want to be competitive in dressage on an Iberian horse they have to be more selective about the conformation of a horse when they're choosing one for dressage. Something with a slightly more open shoulder, longer forearm, etc. Don't get me wrong, I'm quite fond of Iberian horses, but if I wanted to be highly competitive in the dressage world, I wouldn't pick one. I would choose a Warmblood.

Just personal preference I suppose, however it just comes down to the fact that these days Warmbloods are routinely doing better in dressage than Iberians, with some exceptions of course.

I donīt get you wrong :)

Your true, a judge canīt judge perfectly, but I sometimes wish that the people could be more open minded.
Well, the Iberian Horse friends could do Working Equitation, if they want to do cchallenges.

A very good horserider and trainer from Denmark said, "The horse is not build for dressage, dressage is to do something for the horses health."
And thatīs my point of view. But maybe the creator of this thread thought of "Which horse is better to start on dressage competitions?" ??

Sarah2108 - My coach has recently gotten into the Iberian horse "thing" (She is an international competitor and coach). She loves how easy to ride the horses are and prefers them for all her adult amateur students. As such I've been recently exposed to a lot of Iberian horses, mostly Andalusians.
The biggest fault she and I find with these horses is a distinct lack of rhythm. While our warmbloods show tension by falling behind the leg, spooking, picking up annoying habits or bucking the rider off, I have found that the Iberian horses lose their rhythm when they are tense.
This is clearly visible if you watch the YouTube video which shows Fuego's test blended with Totilas' test at the WEG. Fuego quite often loses his rhythm.
Now, because our judging system is based on the German system of training, this causes an issue. It is based all on rhythm, this is the most basic step of the training scale. So when a horse loses the rhythm, they must be heavily penalized because if they do not have the first step of the training scale it is assumed that it cannot have fulfilled any other step (Think - the second step in a staircase cannot exist without the first). And this is where the score difference is seen.

However, these horses do have a lot of traits which make them ten times easier to ride than warmbloods. Until the breeders fix the glaring rhythm issues then for a seriously competitive rider, the purchase of a warmblood will remain the best option.