Global Horse Culture

Recreating a Historic Russian Hunt

With fabulous costumes and Borzoi hounds! What a scene. Thanks to Mike for the tip!

Sorraia horses in action

This short video shows two Sorraia horses in a carriage driving event in Portugal. The Sorraia is an ancient breed thought to have been influential in the development of the Lusitano horse. The Portuguese breed association page is here. You can find English information here. 

Lost and Found?

The Konik horse has an interesting history. It is the result of breeding programs which were attempting to resurrect the extinct Tarpan horse, one of the original wild horses of Europe. The last Tarpans died in captivity in the late 1800s, but interested parties noticed some horses in rural areas of Poland which resembled the Tarpan, though they were probably mixed with domestic bred horses. These were gathered for a breeding program to try to recreate the Tarpan, with one result being the Konik (which means "little horse" in Polish). According to this article, the Nazis, fascinated with nature, ancient history and genetics confiscated some of the herds during WWII, taking them back to Germany. These herds did not survive the war, but enough Koniks remained in Poland to resurrect the program after the war ended, and today there are Konik herds in various parts of Europe.

There are more beautiful photos of Koniks on Astrid van Wesenbeeck's photostream on flickr, which is the source of the photo above.The horses in her photos live in a nature reserve in the Netherlands. 

The Konik program was not the only attempt to recreate the Tarpan. The Heck horse was developed from a breeding program at the Munich zoo, using Konik, Icelandic, Gotland and Przewalski horses.

There have been further attempts even in the United States. The North American Tarpan Association supports breeding and registering of Heck horses, although it may not be active anymore, as the last blog posts are from 2006.

Another breeding program in the US is run by the Stroebels family in Oregon, about which more in this news article.

Spectacular Akhal Teke photos

This Canadian website, Argamak Stud, has a page featuring some spectacular photos of Akhal Teke horses. They are such a unique and exotic breed! Their website (a bloggy sort of website) has lots of articles, photos and information about this rare breed. Worth a visit!

Rare Breed Calendar

Jessica Drake at The Painting Pony has some beautiful calendars for sale, based on her lovely professional photographs. My favorite is the Endangered Horse Breeds calendar, which features super photos of breeds like the Cleveland Bay, Exmoor, Akhal Teke, and many others.

Jessica also has calendars featuring just Akhal Teke horses, and many other horse-related products.

Video Review: Tapadero

I just watched Tapadero, a 2005 movie about the vaquero tradition in California. It is a very interesting video if you are interested in cowboy culture, old California and the vaquero tradition. It covers the history of the vaqueros from their origins in old Mexico through the Spanish settlement of southern California to the modern day. Detailed attention is given to the style of saddles, the making of riatas (lariats), the use of the bosal and spade bit, the methods of roping, and other details of vaquero life. Influential trainers such as Bill Dorrance are also featured.

This might be too much detail for someone with only a general interest in horses, but is very engaging for those with a special interest in the old Western traditions. 

The video is nicely produced and packaged, and features a variety of vaquero-themed music in the soundtrack. It also features some amazing scenery from the old California ranches where the vaquero tradition developed and survives.

Horseboats??

Before motor vehicles it was not uncommon for boats to be towed through canals by mules or draft horses, which walked along a towpath adjacent to the canal. In many places, where the canals are no longer used except for pleasure, the towpaths have become pedestrian walks or bicycle paths.

In Britain an organization exists to preserve the tradition of horseboating - that is, towing a boat along a canal with a draft horse. The Horseboating Society brings their horseboats to fairs and events, and performs long-distance trips, with the aim of maintaining access to the canals and of educating the public about this traditional form of transportation.

It sounds like a pleasant way to see the country! The link above has lots of photos, and detailed information about the history and tradition of horseboating.

The Oldest Breed in the World?

The Retuerta horse is a breed that runs wild in Andalucia, in southern Spain. According to this fascinating article the Retuerta horse "is said to be the oldest surviving breed of horse in Europe, if not the world – and the most unique, having no genes whatsoever in common with any other known race on the planet." It continues:

Studies into the Retuertas have been ongoing since the 1980s. The DNA of this endangered species of horse has been closely examined along with that of another ten breeds from Europe and North Africa, and was found to have nothing whatsoever in common with any of them. Neither the English thoroughbred nor the Pura Raza Española; neither Arabs nor British mountain and moorland ponies, and were found to be no relation whatsoever to native Spanish breeds such as the Losino, Mallorquín, Menorquín, Asturcón, the Spanish Trotter nor the Basque ‘pottoka’ breed.

There are some more photos at this link.

Update: here is the original scientific study that led to the news cited above.

Reader Question: Gaited Breed Origins, Part 3

So having concluded that we cannot know for sure the origins of the Galloway or Narragansett Pacer, we return to Erica's story of her quest for the perfect horse, and her discovery of the Rocky Mountain Horse, and the possible origins of the Rocky Mountain Horse in the gaited breeds now long-lost in Britain. Because in return for her original question, I had one of my own, which was how on earth a British woman ended up finding Rocky Mountain Horses, let alone importing them to the UK.

She tells her story:

I grew up in Africa where I was mad for horses. My father died in my infancy (he always had horses) and I was forever moving about with my mother for her work. I begged my mother – ‘when can I have my own horse?’ and although she probably didn’t put it so harshly, the answer I recall was ‘never’. When I was eleven I lived for a year in Cape Town with my uncle, and my cousin had a beautiful thoroughbred called ‘Flyaway’; Sue (18) was under strict instructions never to put me on him, but I pestered her until she relented, whereupon he bucked me off so high I broke an arm and an ankle when I came down. I probably hit my head because I remember nothing. Anyway it didn’t teach me any sense.

I came to England when I was nearly fifteen and after that years would go by in which I did not ride. I lived in cities and no-one I knew went riding. When I found a riding school, I hated the way you had to ride on the road or on muddy bridle paths that never went anywhere. I longed for the open spaces of my childhood and the feeling of being free and away from it all. I felt sorry for the riding ponies and the whole thing was quite depressing. I wanted to feel at one with my horse. In my mind I was ageless and my horse and I were cantering off into the landscape of my childhood dreams.

And then, in the new millennium, aged nearly fifty, things transpired in my life to lead me to live on the southern edge of Dartmoor. Up behind me was 365 square miles of open moorland, one for each day of the year.... and then my children grew up and I saved a little money and then... I went back to Cape Town for the first time since I was twelve years old to visit that South African cousin who let me ride her horse. Our parents were long dead and the whole world changed about, our children grown and husbands gone too, but we both still loved horses and she still kept them. She told me all about how her ideas of keeping horses had changed. She taught me some of the things she had learned, about keeping them barefoot, about saddles and bridles, about nutrition. She rode bitless and she was into holistic horse management. I was fascinated. When I got home I started reading up about hoof-trimming methods. Sue did the Strasser method and many people here were prejudiced against it. I surfed the internet and read all about the hoof-trimming wars (I decided that all the barefoot methods were converging with time and the wars were stupid, but also that the barefoot advocates were right about the health needs of the horse’s hoof). In the course of this reading I was led, as will not surprise you, to learn about the American mustangs and how the research into the ‘natural hoof’ had led pioneers of the new methods to go study mustangs in the wild.

This was spring last year and we are beginning to home in on how I made my choice of horse...! So. I found websites about Spanish mustangs. One of these sites in particular appealed to me. It had beautiful photos of mustangs running free in 2,000 acres in New Mexico. My African heart began singing at the sight. Idly, I sent an email saying – could I come on a working holiday on your ranch and learn about your horses? And they replied by return – ‘sure!’ and they didn’t want any money and offered to welcome me into their lives. I was overwhelmed. (I work hard in child protection for little money amongst deprived families; I wanted out from domestic and work responsibilities for two weeks and just watch horses in the sage brush.... and be hot.... ). They said they’d find me a horse to ride as well! I was trying to book my flight – which cost a whole lot more than I had budgeted – when I got another email saying they’d have to postpone because of family problems that had cropped up suddenly. Thank heavens I had not paid the flight yet.

I was very disappointed. I kept on googling and because I had sites come up to do with ‘Rocky Mountains’ I hit on ‘Rocky Mountain Horse’, which as it turned out, had nothing to do with the big wild west, but was to do with gaited horses in Kentucky, a breed that developed in the Appalachians amongst hill farmers. These horses had all the attributes that I favoured – hardiness, strong legs and feet, intelligence and survival of the fittest, versatility; and they were ‘smooth to ride’ (what was that?) and they were sweet and loved people! They were the horse of choice for ‘baby boomers’ who had sore knees (I was now fifty-six and my knees got sore when I rode; I’d been riding locally with a friend). To cut a long story short, I decided this was it, this was the perfect horse for me. I wanted one.

I reckon that you should choose a horse to fit the place you want to keep it, and the way you want to keep it – for me that meant living out on Dartmoor, which has a harsh climate in the winter. When they garden, people make the mistake of choosing exotic plants and then planting them in the wrong place and watch them fail instead of thrive. I reckoned, I’ll choose a horse that will thrive being out, being barefoot, that’ll be safe to trail ride, and that’ll be responsive to the love I want to give. Moreover, it turned out that Rockies were not, after all, an ‘exotic’ horse. They carried the genes of old British breeds, now extinct, that were ambling ponies and horses that were exported to the colonies back in the days of empire. I found out that hundreds of years ago, English horses were ‘gaited’ (amblers), but now that folk memory has been lost. People here don’t value that history and have never heard of gaited horses. They think I’m crazy to want one. But to me it made perfect sense – this is the ‘natural horse’ that the ‘natural horsemanship’ people should want – a horse that is bred for comfort and safety to ride, that has a good ‘work ethic’, and has been selected for hardiness. A horse that doesn’t go lame, that breeds into its thirties, that is an easy keeper, that is loyal, that loves to go, that doesn’t need the vet. A horse that hasn’t been bred for competition without regard for temperament and soundness, but which the mountain families cherished for its ability to work with people in a harsh environment, surviving hardship and poverty and giving of its best.

So, I started figuring out how much it would cost me to get one if I used the holiday money and the money I’d saved for a new car. It was a bit more expensive than that to buy one from the very few European breeders. It shocked me how much: Rockies are a ‘rare breed’ and although not endangered any more, there are only a few thousand of them in the world.  Then I looked at importing one myself. I read all the bloodlines and did months of research, trawling the internet. I saw one on a website at a ranch in Kentucky. I asked the breeders to send me a video. She was a queen! She was better than all the others – she moved like a dancer. I was enraptured. I realised if I ran the risk of the import myself, I’d get a better horse than buying in Europe. Also, I could have her bred into the bargain to a first-rate stallion and import another one in her tummy – two for one! Then I could sell the foal and get part of my money back. So I went for it.

When she arrived, my friend led her out of the stable where the transport had dropped her off in Devon – I was too overwhelmed to do anything but watch, and I’d never loaded a horse into a trailer – I’d never done anything with a horse except ride it (I had a lot to learn!). Angel walked out into my world and into my heart – she was even lovelier than I’d imagined (see photo below). I felt I was going to cry – I was speechless. My dream come true.

Of course, there’ve been plenty of problems!  She was only four and I knew nothing of caring for horses and working them on the ground. We’ve spent the last nine months getting to know each other and sorting things out. But I’ve never regretted it. Her foal is due in six weeks and I am full of anticipation and nerves, trying to be strong for my horse and trust her, but give her support and keep her and the baby safe. I can’t even think of selling the baby..... If it’s a boy, I fantasize about standing it as a stallion.....

And guess what – now I want another one! Another mare to be her friend and life companion and to bring another foal of this wonderful breed into Britain. I’ve gone horse mad, mad.

But what happens next is another story....

Many thanks to Erica for her correspondence and contributions! I will return to this question again, some day, should I discover any new information.

Reader Question: Gaited Breed Origins, Part 2

So having focused on the Galloway in Part 1, we turn to the Narragansett Pacer.

The Narragansett Pacer was an important breed in the United States, and influential in the development of many modern breeds, including many of the Eastern gaited breeds, such as the Rocky Mountain Horse. This excerpt from 1847, clearly shows the significance of this now-extinct breed:

My grandfather, Gov. Robinson, introduced the famous saddle horse the 'Narragansett Pacer,' known in the last century over all the civilized part of North America and the West Indies, from when they have lately been introduced into England as a ladies saddle horse, under the name of Spanish Jannette. Governor Robinson imported the original from Andalusia, in Spain, and the raising of them for the West India market, was one of the objects of the early planters of this country. My grandfather, Robert Hazard, raised about one hundred annually, and often loaded two vessels a year with them...which sailed direct from the South Ferry to the West Indies, where they were in great demand. One of the causes of the loss of that famous breed here, was the great demand for them in Cuba.... This, and the fact that they were not so well adapted to draft as other horses, was the cause of their being neglected, and I believe the breed is now extinct in this section.

My father described the motion of this horse as differing from others, in that its back bone moved through the air in a straight line, without inclining the rider from side to side, as the common racker or pacer of the present day. Hence it was very easy, and being of great power and endurance, they would perform a journey of one hundred miles a day, without injury to themselves or rider. (from "History of the Episcopal Church, in Narrangansett, Rhode Island," by Wilkins Updike, pp 515-516.)

However, Mr. Herbert, cited previously, argues against this account, saying:

In England, notwithstanding what Mr. Hazard states...concerning the importance of these pacers, under the name of Spanish jennets, I never saw or heard tell, having been among horses and horsemen since my earliest childhood, of any such race of ladies' riding horses; nor have I ever read, to the best of my memory, of pacers, in sature, poem, or romance, as a feature of feminine luxury.

In Andalusia and Spain generally, I have no knowledge of a breed of horses to which that gait is native and characteristic; and if it were so, all the English military and many of my own friends and relations, in my youngers days, being thoroughly familiarized to all the Spanish provinces during the course of the Penisular campaigns, I could hardly have been ignorant of the fact.  (Herbert, pp 72-73)

Another writer also disputes the Spanish links to the Narragansett Pacer, saying in there is no record of horses imported to Rhode Island from Spain, and that:

Her people were largely made up of refugees from the religious intolerance of the other New England colonies, and they brought their families and effects, including their horses, with them. The blood of the Narragansett pacer, therefore, was not different from the blood of the pacers of the other colonies, but the development of his speed by the establishment of a pacing course and the offering of valuable prizes, naturally brought the best and the fastest horses to this colony... ("The Horse of America in His Derivation, History and Development" by John Hankins Wallace, p 175)

All of this makes me wonder whether "Spanish" was used in the past as a way to indicate that something was glamorous or trendy, in the same way that fine goods now are sometimes branded as if they are French, to convey a sense of luxury. Barring further research, I cannot conclude that the Narragansett Pacer was or was not related to the Spanish horses or to the Galloway, nor can I be sure that the Galloway was or was not imported to the United States, nor whether the Galloway had Spanish ancestry.

to be continued...