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The rare Abaco Barb, which is in great danger of extinction, is believed to have descended from Spanish horses that were in route aboard ships with early explorers to the New World. Many of these ships never reached their destination, and instead were shipwrecked or pirated in the Caribbean.
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With its unusual, gazelle-like appearance, the Akhal-Teke (Ah-cull Tek-y) is an incredibly distinctive breed. Experts say the Akhal-Teke breed is at least 3,000 years old. The Akhal-Teke may be the last remaining strain of the Turkmene (a horse that has existed since 2400 B.C.).
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Nearly 98 percent of all American Cream Draft horses have the blood of an Iowan cream colored draft-type mare called Old Granny, who was born at the turn of the 20th century. Her beauty and unique coat coloring prompted breeders in the area to try to create a breed of cream-colored draft horses.
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In 1519, the explorer Hernando Cortes carried two horses described as having pinto markings on his voyage. This is the first known description of such horses in America. By the early 1800s, horses with Paint coloring were well-populated throughout the West.
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The American Quarter Horse traces its roots to early America, where settlers crossed English horses to those of Spanish ancestry, producing a compact and muscular horse.
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The American Saddlebred originated from Galloway and Hobbie horses imported from Britain during the early part of America’s history.
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Hailing from the Iberian Peninsula, the Andalusian takes its name from the Province of Andalucia, where it was most famous. This living antiquity is purported to be an ancient breed; 20,000-year-old cave drawings show a similar type of horse and Homer mentions the horses in the Illiad (1,100 B.C.).
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The Spanish introduced horses to Mexico in the 1500s, and spotted horses have been depicted in images as far back as prehistoric cave paintings. However, it wasn’t until the 1700s when horses first reached Northwest America that horses with Appaloosa coloring gained recognition in the United States.
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Until the 1940s the American Quarter Horse existed as a type rather than a breed, but in 1940 a group of breeders discussed the idea of forming an association. However, there was disagreement about what constituted a Quarter Horse.
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Theorized to be the oldest breed in the world, Arabians were constant companions of the first documented breeders of the Arabian horse, the Bedouin people--nomadic tribesmen of Arabia who relied on the horse for survival.
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The Barb is an ancient breed that was established in the Fertile Crescent of Middle Asia. The fast and agile Barb was a favored mount for the Berbers. In fact, the animal draws its name from this group of “barbarous” people.
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The Belgian draft horse was developed in the fertile pastures of Belgium. It was also there that the forefather of all draft horses was first bred—a heavy black horse used as knights’ mounts called the Flemish.
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The Russian Budenny (bood-yo-nee) was created to replace the mass equine casualties of World War I and the Russian Revolution, and to breed a horse that a Soviet officer would be proud to ride. The top cavalry riders were the Cossacks who rode the native Don.
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The Camargue originated in the marshy plains of the Rhone delta in the South of France. It has existed since prehistoric times.
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In the late 1600s, King Louis XIV of France brought Breton and Norman horses to the region of North America now known as Canada.
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In 1965, Louise Firouz, an American living in Tehran, Iran, discovered a small Arabian-like horse in the Elborz Mountains that she named Caspian.
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The Chincoteague pony was made famous in Marguerite Henry’s book Misty of Chincoteague. The ponies live on the barrier island of Assateague in Maryland and Virginia.
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The Cleveland Bay developed in the Cleveland area of Northern Yorkshire in northeast England. In medieval times, the Cleveland Bay was valued as a packhorse for the church, carrying goods to and from various monasteries and convents.
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The Clydesdale originated in the Clyde Valley, Scotland, and is the youngest of all the United Kingdom heavy breeds, finding its full development in the last 150 years.
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The Connemara Pony is Ireland’s only native breed. It comes from and is named for an area on the west coast of Ireland bordered by the Atlantic Ocean and Galway Bay; a wilderness of bogs and rugged moorland.
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The majority of the Curly Horses, also known as the American Bashkir Curly Horse, descend from a herd of three horses found by the Damele family in 1898 roaming the mountain ranges of Nevada. How they came to be on the continent remains a mystery.
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The Dales Pony originated in the dales of northeast England. The Dales Pony was the ultimate farmer’s horse, pulling a plow, a cart, or working under saddle helping to herd sheep. The Dales Pony was valued as a pack pony working in the lead mines carrying the ore to cargo ships.
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The Danish Warmblood is the youngest of all the European warmblood breeds, beginning in 1962. There were two Danish saddle horse breed associations—the Danish Sport Horse Society and the Danish Light Horse Association.
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Any visitor traveling from the south toward Stonehenge in the southwest of England will most likely drive through Dartmoor, home to Sherlock Holmes’ “Hound of the Baskervilles” and the Dartmoor Pony.
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After World War II, Dutch farms were becoming mechanized and horses were no longer needed to work the land, but two lighter farm horses, the Gelderlander and the Groningen were used to help establish a new breed.
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The Exmoor Pony is the oldest of the nine British breeds and is least influenced by outside breeding. The Exmoor was first prized as a chariot horse by invading Roman forces.
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The Fell Pony arrived in Great Britain as an ancient Wild European Pony type that came across the land bridge during the ice age. The ponies dispersed throughout the United Kingdom, and the resulting habitat helped form and shape the modern Fell Pony.
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The Florida Cracker descends from Spanish horses such as the Barb and the Spanish Jennet that arrived in the southern United States in the 1500s.
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The Friesian is one of Europe’s oldest breeds and gets its name from the Friesland region in the north of the Netherlands. The breed almost became extinct worldwide during the turn of the 20th century, as many Friesians were crossed to other breeds to create a faster horse for trotting races.
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The Gotland-Russ Pony thrives in forest regions on the island of Gotland in Sweden. The inhabitants of Gotland also call the ponies skogsbaggar, meaning "forest rams." Russ is the Gutnish word for horse. In the early 19th century, the Gotland-Russ pony was used for farming.
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Gypsy horses, registered as Gypsy Vanner Horses, Gypsy Cobs and Gypsy Drum horses, are a relatively new concept to most people, but not to the Romany (gypsy) “Traveller” of Great Britain.
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The Hackney was developed in Great Britain in the late 17th and early 18th centuries and was descendant of the Norfolk Trotter, Yorkshire Roadster, the Arabian and the Thoroughbred. Their early ancestors were even thought to be Friesians.
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The Haflinger hails from the Southern Tyrolean Mountains of Austria and Northern Italy and is thought to have been there since medieval times. In fact, the horse gets its name from the Tyrolean village of Hafling.
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Like most German warmbloods, the Hanoverian is named for its region of origin: Lower Saxony in northern Germany was formerly the kingdom of Hannover. In 1714, King George I of England—originally the elector of Hannover—sent several English Thoroughbreds to Germany to refine the native stock.
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The Highland pony is one of the two native pony breeds hailing from the north of Scotland. It is the largest and strongest of all the native ponies of Great Britain.
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The Icelandic Horse was most likely brought to Iceland by the Vikings in the 9th century. Although the breed shares characteristics with the Mongolian horse and the Lyngen or Nordland, little is actually known about its ancestry.
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The Irish Draught Horse is one of the two native equine breeds found in Ireland. Its ancestry is unclear.
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The Kathiawari originated in the Kathiawar peninsula in Western India and is probably a mix between the Arabian and other desert breeds. The Marwari and Kathiawari are often assumed to be the same breed, but the Kathiawari is a stockier horse than the more finely featured Marwari.
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The Kerry Bog Pony is believed to be descended from the Celdone ponies, used by the Celtic settlers in northwest Spain. Military and trading relations between Spain, Portugal and Ireland have been credited with introducing these ponies to Ireland.
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The Knabstrupper was developed by Major Villars Lunn in Nordsealand, Denmark, who put a chestnut blanketed mare of Spanish breeding to a Fredricksborg stallion in 1812. This first breeding resulted in a colorfully spotted colt and the basis for a new breed.
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The Lipizzan’s roots go back to Moorish-occupied Spain when Spanish-bred horses were considered the optimum cavalry mount. In 1562, Maximillian II brought Spanish horses to the Austrian court. His brother Archduke Charles II created another stud at Lipizza by the Adriatic Sea.
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Today's Morgan horses trace back to a bay stallion called Figure, owned by school teacher and songwriter Justin Morgan of Vermont. In the early 1900s, the automobile and other machinery made workhorses of all breeds, including the Morgan, obsolete.
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The Portuguese Lusitano was officially created in the late 1960s after Portuguese breeders opened a studbook that would set their Andalusians apart from Spanish Andalusians. The official name of this breed is Puro Sangue Lusitano, which is the Latin name for Portugal.
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The Mangalarga Marchador is the national horse of Brazil and its genealogy is rich with horses from the Iberian Peninsula. Sublime, the foundation stallion of the Marchador, was a product of horses brought to Brazil by the Portuguese royal family in the early 1800s.
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In the boggy lowlands of South Carolina, one equine reigns supreme among the avid trail rider: the Carolina Marsh Tacky.
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The most amazing feature about the Indian horse called the Marwari (mar-wah-ree) is its curved ears. They often touch or cross in the middle, giving an appearance of a spectacular headdress.
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The Miniature Horse traces its history back to the 17th century in Europe, when oddities and unusual animals were talking points among nobility. Less refined Minis were employed as “pit ponies” working and living inside mines. Minis were imported to America in the 1930s to work in the coal mines.
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The Missouri Fox Trotter is a product of its native Ozark Mountains in Missouri. The breed’s decedents, mainly of Morgan, Thoroughbred and Arabian blood, arrived in the Ozarks when pioneers settled the area in 1821.
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Though only established as a breed in the late 20th century, the crossing of Morgan and Arabian bloodlines has been popular since the 1800s. The resulting horses were champion show and trotting horses.
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Not many horse lovers have escaped childhood without reading Marguerite Henry’s non-fiction book about Figure, the very first Morgan, owned by school teacher Justin Morgan in West Springfield, Mass., in 1789. This gentle little stallion was given to the school teacher for payment of a debt.
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More than 160 years ago, settlers in the region of present-day eastern Kentucky used the gaited horses thriving in the area to work among the steep hills and in the fields.
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The mule is a human invention developed to create a strong, placid animal suitable for packing, riding and driving. Breeding a female horse to a male donkey creates a mule, and breeding male horse to a female donkey creates a hinny (less common); both are usually sterile.
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Mustang is a derivative of the Spanish word mesteña, which means wild or stray. Horses roamed America 10,000 years ago but vanished from the landscape until the Spanish conquistadors arrived in the 16th century with their horses of Barb decent.
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Although the National Show Horse has existed as a Half-Arabian show horse for many years, it became a breed officially in 1982. By crossing the Arabian with the Saddlebred the resulting offspring carries the best aspects of both breeds.
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In England, near the coast in southwest Hampshire, lies the beautiful New Forest. The New Forest Pony, one of the nine native breeds of the United Kingdom, has existed here since 1016 A.D.
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The Newfoundland Pony is a descendant of British breeds that were brought to the New Founde Land by English settlers in the 17th and 18th centuries and used for heavy work on the harsh terrain.
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Nokota horses are some of the last descendants of the wild horses of North Dakota.
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The Norman Cob officially became a breed in the early 1900s. Although the term cob usually denotes a type of horse rather than a breed, the French chose the name because they resembled the English Cob. A cob is usually an all-rounder, with the ability to carry a rider or work as a draft horse.
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The Fjord is one of the world’s oldest breeds of horses. It is believed to have been in western Norway for more than 4,000 years and domesticated as early as 2000 B.C. Evidence shows that Vikings developed the Fjord as a as early as 2,000 years ago.
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The Oldenburg was created in the 17th Century through the endeavors of Count Johann XVI von Oldenburg and Count Anton Gunther von Oldenburg to create a grand carriage horse. Small breeding farms throughout the provinces of Oldenburg and East Friesland were developed.
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The Orlov Trotter was developed in 18th century Russia by Count Alexei Orlov. The breed orignated through the crossing of European mares with Arabian stallions. The foundation sire of the breed was Bars I, a stallion of Arabian, Danish and Dutch breeding, foaled in 1784.
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In 1519, the explorer Hernando Cortes carried two horses described as having pinto markings on his voyage. This is the first known description of such horses in America. By the early 1800s, horses with Paint coloring were well-populated throughout the West.
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The Paso Fino’s earliest ancestry includes the Barb, Andalusian and the gaited Spanish Jennet, which came to Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) with Christopher Columbus to be used as conquistadors’ mounts throughout the 1500s.
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The Percheron developed in the Le Perche region in Normandy in 732 A.D. when Barb horses were left by marauding Moors after their defeat in the Battle of Tours. Massive Flemish horses were crossed with the Barbs to give the Percheron its substance. Arabian blood was also added.
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Although the Peruvian Horse, sometimes referred to as the Peruvian Paso, and the Paso Fino share the same earlier parentage (Andalusian, Barb and Spanish Jennet), and are both gaited, they are not the same breed.
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Although spotted horses seem to have originated with American Indian horses, the distinctive two-toned coat pattern probably came to North America through Arabian and Spanish stock that accompanied early explorers.
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The first Pony of the Americas (POA) was born in the spring of 1954 after an Arabian/Appaloosa mare accidentally bred to a Shetland stallion. The owner offered to sell the pregnant mare to a neighbor, lawyer and Shetland pony breeder Les Boomhower.
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The three primitive horses considered to be the foundation of all domestic horses, the Forest Horse, the Tarpan and the Asiatic wild horse, were considered extinct until Russian cartographer Colonel Nikolai Przewalski saw a herd of dun colored horses while in southwest Mongolia in 1879.
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The American Quarter Horse traces its roots to early America, where settlers crossed English horses to those of Spanish ancestry, producing a compact and muscular horse.
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The Racking Horse developed on Southern plantations before the Civil War and shares its parentage with the Tennessee Walking Horse. The Racking Horse’s comfortable gait made it easy for plantation owners to ride from field to field without fatigue.
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In 1879, General Ulysses S. Grant was given two stallions by a Turkish Sultan, one was an Arabian (Leopard) and the other a Barb (Linden Tree). The horses were brought to America, and in 1894 they were bred with native cowhorse mares in Nebraska.
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The Rocky Mountain Horse originated in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains in eastern Kentucky in the late 1800s. The breed gets its name from its foundation stallion, a gaited horse from the Rocky Mountains.
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The American Saddlebred originated from Galloway and Hobbie horses imported from Britain during the early part of America’s history.
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The Selle Francais (or French Saddle Horse) is a warmblood type developed in the government stud farms in Le Pin in Normandy, France, in the 1800s.
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The Shagya Arabian takes its name from the breed's founding sire, Shagya, a dapple gray foaled in 1810. The breed was developed in the Austro-Hungarian empire of the 1800s to fill the need for a larger, sturdier riding horse while maintaining the endurance and intelligence of the Arabian.
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Off the coast of Scotland lie the Shetland Islands, native habitat of the smallest pony in Britain: the Shetland Pony. It’s thought that the breed evolved on the Scandinavian tundra and was possibly brought over by Viking raiders.
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The Shire is the most popular draft horse in the United Kingdom. The Shire made its first appearance on British soil in its original form of the Great Horse, which was brought by William the Conqueror in 1066.
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The Spanish Mustang is a descendent of horses brought to the New World by the Spaniards in the 15th century, starting with Columbus' second journey. Breeding farms were established, and through trade and the settlement of new land, these Spanish horses eventually spread throughout North America.
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Spotted Saddle Horse breeding includes a heavy Tennessee Walking Horse influence combined with bloodlines descended from spotted Spanish-American ponies. The breed was originally developed in Tennessee to be a reliable family horse with a smooth, comfortable gait for long trail rides.
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In 1849 Hambletonian 10, the foundation sire of the American Standardbred was born. His offspring went on to set records in the harness racing world.
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The Suffolk Punch is the oldest of Great Britain’s heavy breeds, dating back to at least the 16th century. The early breeding may have been influenced by the Norfolk Roadster, Norfolk Trotter or Norfolk Cob, and the breed’s size may have come from Belgian draft blood.
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Evidence shows that equines have been in Sweden since 4000 B.C. In the 1500s, the Swedish government began importing horses, most notably Dutch Friesians and some saddle breeds, to improve the indigenous Scandinavian horse. The national stud farms were located in Flyinge, Stromsholm and Kungsor.
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The Tennessee Walking Horse is an American original, developed in central Tennessee in the late 1800s. The horse’s genealogy includes a mixture of breeds that settlers brought with them, such as Morgans, Narragansett Pacer and Canadian Horses.
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Throughout equine history few breeds have impacted the horse world quite like the Thoroughbred. Three foundation sires, the Byerly Turk, the Godolphin Arabian and the Darley Arabian, were bred to native English horses to create the breed in the early 17th century.
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The Trakehner is one of the oldest European warmblood breeds, with its history going back more than 400 years. The breed is based on a local horse (then found in East Prussia) called the Schweiken.
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The wild wind-swept hills and valleys in Wales developed the characteristics of the Welsh Pony and Cob. Through the years, they lent their use to hill farmers and shepherds, landowners and deliverymen. In 1901, the Welsh Pony and Cob Society was established in Wales.
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Westphalia is the largest state in Germany and home to the Westphalian warmblood horse. Horse breeding is a tradition in Westphalia dating back centuries.
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