Horse Breeds 2
THE HAFLINGER PONY
Originating from the South Tyrol, Haflingers were the native ponies of the Alpine farms of Austria. Arab blood, brought back from the continental wars with the Turks, was crossed with the native Tyrolean ponies, thus establishing the haflinger breed.
The Haflinger stands on average 14hh, stallions slightly larger. The Haflinger is chestnut; light, middle or liver. Dappling is accepted as is lighter legs and under-body. White hairs within the coat or socks are not favoured. The mane and tail should be white or flaxen.
The Haflinger is describes as friendly, uncomplicated and willing - the ideal family-pony.
Source: Equiworld (UK) - Photo credit: Hunter Jumper News
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THE LIPPIZAN HORSE
Most Lipizzans measure between 14.2 and 15.2 hands, with occasional individuals either over or under. They are compact and muscular, with very powerful hindquarters, allowing them to do the difficult “High School” (Dressage) movements, including the “airs above the ground.” They generally have a strong-featured head with a convex profile, set high on a well-muscled, arched neck. They have short cannons, their legs have good bone, and well-sloped shoulders. Their gaits are powerful and elastic, although different in style from the Warmblood breeds seen in many Dressage competitions. Lipizzans are naturally balanced, well-known for excellent trainability and intelligence.Lipizzans are slow to mature, usually not being put under saddle until the age of four, and not considered fully mature until the age of seven. However, they also are long-lived horses, often performing well into their mid-20s, and living into their thirties. For example, the stallion Siglavy Mantua I was a featured solo performer with the Spanish Riding School at the age of 26 during its 2005 tour of the United States.Aside from the rare solid-colored horse (usually bay or black), all Lipizzans are gray. As with all gray horses, they are born dark—usually bay or black—and become lighter each year as the graying process takes place. Other than the rare individual who does not carry the gray gene, Lipizzans usually gray quickly and develop a completely white hair coat. They are usually completely white by the average age of seven, though the range varies from as young as six to as old as ten.
Until the 18th century, Lipizzans had other coat colors, including dun and bay. However, gray is a dominant gene, and in a small breed population and also deliberately selected as a desirable feature, it came to be the color of the overwhelming majority of Lipizzan horses. However, today, it is still traditional for the Spanish Riding School to have one bay Lipizzan in residence, showing respect to an old belief that doing so will prevent bad luck.
Source and photo: Wikipedia
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THE ARABIAN HORSE
The Arabian horse is a breed of horse with a reputation for intelligence, spirit, and stamina. With a distinctive head shape and high tail carriage, the Arabian is one of the most easily recognizable horse breeds in the world. It is one of the oldest horse breeds, with archaeological evidence of horses that resemble modern Arabians dating back 4,500 years. Throughout history, Arabian horses from the Middle East spread around the world by both war and trade, used to improve other breeds by adding speed, refinement, endurance, and good bone. Today, Arabian bloodlines are found in almost every modern breed of riding horse.
The Arabian developed in a desert climate and was prized by the nomadic Bedouin people, often being brought inside the family tent for shelter and protection. This close relationship with humans has created a horse breed that is good-natured, quick to learn, and willing to please. But the Arabian also developed the high spirit and alertness needed in a horse used for raiding and war. This combination of willingness and sensitivity requires modern Arabian horse owners to handle their horses with competence and respect.
Arabian horses have refined, wedge-shaped heads, a broad forehead, large eyes, large nostrils, and small muzzles. Most display a distinctive concave or “dished” profile. Many Arabians also have a slight forehead bulge between their eyes, called the “jibbah” by the Bedouin, that adds additional sinus capacity, believed to have helped the Arabian horse in its native dry desert climate.[5][6] Another breed characteristic is an arched neck with a large, well-set windpipe set on a refined, clean throatlatch. This structure of the poll and throatlatch was called the mitbah or mitbeh by the Bedouin, and in the best Arabians is long, allowing flexibility in the bridle and room for the windpipe.
“The Versatile Arabian” is a slogan of the breed. Arabians dominate the discipline of endurance riding, and compete today in many other fields of equestrian activity. They are one of the top ten most popular horse breeds in the world. Arabian horses are now found worldwide, including the United States and Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, continental Europe, South America (especially Brazil), and its land of origin, the Middle East.
Other distinctive features are a relatively long, level croup and naturally high tail carriage. Well-bred Arabians have a deep, well-angled hip and well laid-back shoulder. Most have a compact body with a short back. Some, though not all, have 5 lumbar vertebrae instead of the usual 6, and 17 rather than 18 pairs of ribs. Thus, even a small Arabian can carry a heavy rider with ease. Arabians usually possess dense, strong bone, sound feet, and good hoof walls. They are especially noted for endurance. Thus, all Arabians, regardless of height, are classified as “horses,” even though 14.2 hands is the traditional cutoff height between a horse and a pony. Because many horse owners in Europe and the Americas prefer taller animals, the Arabian has been bred for increased height, and many Arabians today are between 15 and 16 hands (60-64 inches at the withers).
For centuries, Arabian horses lived in the desert in close association with humans. For shelter and protection from theft, prized war mares were sometimes kept in their owner’s tent, close to children and everyday family life. Only horses with a naturally good disposition were allowed to reproduce. The result is that Arabians today are one of the few breeds which the United States Equestrian Federation allows children to exhibit stallions in show ring classes limited to riders under 18.
On the other hand, the Arabian is also classified as a “hot-blooded” breed, a category that includes other refined, spirited horses bred for speed, such as the Thoroughbred and the Barb. Like other hot-bloods, Arabians’ sensitivity and intelligence enable quick learning and greater communication with their riders. However, their intelligence also allows them to learn bad habits as quickly as good ones; they can quickly lose trust in a poor rider, and do not tolerate inept or abusive training practices.
The Arabian Horse Association recognizes purebred horses with the coat colors bay, gray, chestnut, black, and roan. Bay is the most common color, followed by gray, and then chestnut. Black is somewhat rare. As noted below, true roan may not actually exist in Arabians; rather, roaning in the Arab could simply be a manifestation of the sabino or rabicano genes. All Arabians, no matter the coat color, have black skin, except under white markings. Black skin provided protection from the hot desert sun.
Although many Arabians appear “white,” this is the natural action of the gray gene. Gray horses are born bay, black or chestnut, then get progressively lighter as they age, until their hair coat eventually turns pure white or becomes “flea-bitten” gray. Their skin is black and remains so throughout their life. Therefore, virtually all “white” Arabians are actually grays. There is no such thing as a genetically “white” Arabian, although there is an extremely small number of Arabians registered as “white” for other reasons, including fewer than 20 Arabian horses in the world who appear to have “maximum sabino” traits that include a white coat from birth.
Black Arabians are not common. There are assorted and contradictory myths about black horses alleged to come from the Bedouin. Some areas considered black Arabians to be a bad omen, in other areas they were a valued treasure. One scientific reason that black is not common is that the black gene is genetically suppressed by the more dominant Agouti gene that creates the black points of a bay horse. Some breeding farms now use DNA testing to increase the probability of producing black Arabians.
The Bedouin had other assorted beliefs about color. It is also said that a particular type of “flea-bitten” gray with localized aggregations of pigment, known as a “bloody-shouldered” horse, was prized as a superior animal, particularly if a mare. Yet another myth is that the first “bloody shouldered” horse was a mare who mourned her rider, killed in war, and forever kept the stains left from the blood of her long-lost companion.
Arabians are crossed with other breeds to produce half-Arabians with additional colors. Purebred Arabians never carry dilution genes such as the dun gene, nor the cream gene. Because they do not carry any dilution genes, purebred Arabians cannot be cremello, perlino, palomino or buckskin. Arabians also never carry the proposed “dominant white” (W) gene that produces a true white horse (with pink skin and blue or light-colored eyes).
Purebred Arabians today do not possess genes for most spotting patterns, such as pinto or Appaloosa, except for sabino, discussed below. Spotting or excess white was once thought by some to be a sign of “impure” blood, was disfavored by Arabian breeders, and believed by some to be a mark of impurity until DNA testing for verification of parentage became standard. For a time, horses with belly spots and other white markings deemed excessive could not even be registered, and even after the rule was softened, excess white was sometimes penalized in the show ring. Nonetheless, there is pictorial evidence from depictions of chariot horses in Ancient Egypt and some later artwork that suggests that some of these patterns may have existed in antiquity.
Thus, though the purebred Arabian produces a limited range of potential colors, there is also a positive result: because they never carry the white gene (”W”) or the frame overo gene (”O”), they can never produce foals with lethal dominant white (”WW”) or lethal white syndrome. (Though a partbred could carry these genes if the non-Arabian parent was a carrier).
Source and photo: Wikipedia
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THE ISLANDIC HORSE
The Icelandic horse is a breed of horse that has lived in Iceland since the mid-800s AD, having been brought to the island by Viking settlers. The Icelandic Horse originated from pony breeds taken from Scandinavian and European countries to Iceland during the original and subsequent settlements but has now been bred for centuries without the addition of outside bloodstock. Because they are often pony-sized, they are referred to as “Icelandic ponies” in some countries. However, in other places, the breed is considered a “horse” and to call it a “pony” may offend many breeders.
Regardless of size or horse/pony designation, Icelandic horses can easily carry the weight of a grown adult.
There are roughly 75,000 Icelandic horses in Iceland, and up until recently relatively few abroad, owing in large part to centuries-old Icelandic legislation that prevents any Icelandic horse from returning to the island once it has been taken to another country.
They are considered small (averaging 12.2 to 14.1 hands/125 - 155cm in height and 600 to 900lbs./270 to 400kg in weight) but very strong for their size. They can carry roughly one-third of their weight, but should be at least four and a half - better five - years old before being broken to saddle.
Probably the most beloved trait of the Icelandic horse is its unique character.
Iceland has never had any predators large enough to be any threat to a horse. Instead it is a country with tremendous environmental dangers, such as harsh extremes in weather, volcanic activity, extremely varied and treacherous terrain, quicksand, rock slides, rivers with changing currents, etc. Therefore, the ability to assess a situation rather than the instinct to flee has been central in the survival of the horse. Even today Icelandics seem to lack the “spookiness” of most other breeds and are more inclined to think through a situation before making the decision to run. They also seem to have a much higher pain tolerance than other breeds and have a strong will to survive even the toughest conditions. There are many old Icelandic tales of horses that overcame tremendous obstacles to carry their riders safely to their destination.
Traditionally in Iceland, young horses and those not under saddle were allowed to run free, in large herds in the highlands. Because of environmental concerns, this practice is only continued in parts of Northern Iceland today. Even in other parts of Iceland the horses are often left in vast pastures, largely on their own, for long periods of time. All horses in Iceland are given an annual vacation in late fall of each year, where they can be in herds left alone. The Icelanders feel that it is important that the horse grow up learning how to be an independent thinker, to take care of itself, and to not be too dependent on humans. The Icelanders want their horses to be thinking partners. They also believe that horses allowed to run free at least part of the year grow stronger, become more sure footed and are more self-confident.
In general, Icelandics are trained to be spirited under saddle. Almost all Icelandics tend to be very calm and easy going on the ground, but most will be surprisingly forward when ridden, when trained that way. Icelanders call this spirit “willingness.” And a willing horse, by Icelandic standards, is a forward horse indeed. A willing horse will always offer more energy to the rider. However as in all other breeds, the amount of willingness varies from individual to individual, some being very willing, others not. Some Icelandics even seem to have the talent to adapt to the skill level of the rider.
In the early days, the rugged Icelandic climate meant that keeping only the best horses was worthwhile. Cramped quarters meant that people, horses and other animals would often share tight spaces. Therefore, any horses that showed faults in character were quickly culled and used for meat. This practice continues today in Iceland and horsemeat is exported regularly to mainland Europe and Japan. This is probably the strongest reason that, today, you will rarely find an Icelandic that would ever kick, bite or even lay its ears back at a human for any reason. This sort of behavior is simply not tolerated.
Although some Icelandics are more friendly than others, the majority still enjoy the company of people. And most Icelandics are known to form very close bonds with their owners.
Icelandics are considered quite intelligent. As such they often learn new things very quickly. However, as they are bright they usually do not like to be drilled and they must constantly be challenged with new and different tasks to stay interested and willing. Although Icelandics are sometimes schooled in a ring or on an oval track, most like to be trained out on the trail enjoying nature.
Source and photo: Wikipedia
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THE FALABELLA
The ancestral stock of the horse of South America descended from horses brought to the western hemisphere by the Spanish of Andalusian and other Iberian bloodlines. In the southern part of the continent, significant numbers of these horses developed within geographically isolated conditions and by the mid-nineteenth century, there were any number of smaller, inbred animals in the herds of Mapuche Indians of southern Buenos Aires province in Argentina. The Falabella horse was originally developed in Argentina from local horses of Criollo stock, beginning in 1868 with the breeding program of Patrick Newell. When Newell died, the herd and breeding methods were passed to Newell’s son-in-law, Juan Falabella. Juan added additional bloodlines, including the Welsh Pony, Shetland pony, and small Thoroughbreds. With considerable inbreeding, he was able to gain consistently small size within the herd.
Beginning in the 1940s, a descendant, Julio C. Falabella, created a formal breed registry, the Establecimientos Falabella, now the Asociación de Criadores de Caballos Falabella (Falabella Horse Breeders Association), and worked to standardize the breed to reach a consistent height, first achieving an average size of under 40 inches. Later breeders developed the modern standard, a horse breed that averaged approximately 30 inches in height.
Average breed heights for a fully-grown Falabella today are between 28 and 34 inches.[3] The breed is proportioned similarly to horses, other than in size. They are similar to Thoroughbreds or Arabs in their conformation, with a sleek coat and a slim frame. The Falabella’s body is small and compact. The breed also inherited some cob-like features from pony bloodlines, including sturdy bone, and a thicker hair coat, particularly the mane, tail and around the fetlocks. The head may be slightly larger and the neck is often stouter by comparison with a normal-sized horse, but overall, the animal is not unusually or abnormally proportioned.
Bay (or a variant of bay, called “brown”) and black are the most common colors, but there are also pintos, palominos and other spotting patterns found. Black or red leopard-spotted Falabellas (resembling, but not the same as the Appaloosa horse breed) also exist, but are not common.
Falabella foals are very small, standing eight inches tall at birth, and mature to their adult height by the age of two. They are considered very hardy, able to handle severe weather conditions, foal easily, and consistently pass on size, conformation and temperament.
Source: Wikipedia - photo: International Falabella Miniature Horse Society
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THE CRIOLLO HORSE
The criollo (in Spanish), or crioulo (in Portuguese), is the native horse of Argentina (1918), Uruguay (1923), Brazil (1932) and Paraguay. It may have the best endurance of any horse breed in the world next to the Arabian. In fact, due to the crioulo’s low basal metabolism it may be a better long distance horse than the Arabian in prolonged races over a week in duration with no supplemental feed. The breed is most popular in its home country, and is known for its hardiness and stamina.
The word criollo originally referred to human and animals of purebred Spanish ancestry that were born in the Americas, or, in Portuguese “crioulo”, to animal or slave (black person) born in the Americas. With the time the significance of the word would simply come to mean native breeds of the Americas.
The criollo is a hardy horse with a brawny and strong body. They have short, strong legs with good bone, resistant joints, low set hocks, and sound, hard feet. The long muzzled head is medium to large sized and has a straight or slightly convex profile with wide-set eyes. The croup is sloping and the haunches well-muscled, the back short with a strong loin. They have sloping, strong shoulders with muscular necks. The body is deep with a broad chest and well-sprung ribs.
The criollo is tractable, intelligent, willing, and sensible. The criollo horses average 1.45 m (14.1 hh). The maximum height for stallions and geldings is 1.50 m (14.3 hh) high and the minimum height is 1.38 m (13.2 hh). The maximum and minimum heights for mares are 2 cm less (approximately one inch). The line backed dun is the most popular color, but the breed may also come in bay, brown, black, chestnut, grulla, buckskin, palomino, blue or strawberry roan, gray and overo colors.
The breed is famous for their endurance capabilities and ability to live in harsh conditions, as their homeland has both extreme heat and cold weather. They are frugal eaters, thriving on little grass. They have good resistance to disease and are long-lived.
Source and photo: Wikipedia