ANIMALS

THE IRISH HORSE

The Irish horse the only native breed of horse from Ireland. Irish people have always been very proud of their horses and they regularly cite them in their sagas It remained a long lasting race exclusive in Irlande and natural selection allowed it to acquire a high resistance to climatic conditions with simply a poor food.

TEMPER

Pony morphology.
Size from 1.25 to 1.45 m.
Weight 300 to 400 kg.

All dress are allowed.
Big head, straight profile.
Very strong legs, thick sole.
Confident and generous nature but independent

ANCESTORS:

The ancestors of the Irish horse were probably brought to Irlande by boat by the Vikings, The Norse settlers were followed by immigrants into colonies of Northern Irlande, the Isle of Man and the Western Isles of Scotia. These settlers brought with them the late ancestors of the Shetland ponies, Connemara and the highland, which were crossed with northen horses two. There may also have a relationship with the yakoute pony and morphological similarities exist with nordland Norway, theymay have been brought from Norway to Irlande through Fjords. Fearing degeneration of the cheptel in 1982, they voted the AlthingNote laws prohibiting the importation of horses in Ireland, which stopped the cross-breedings: Irish horses have been purebred for over a millenium.

EXPORT OF HORSES:

At the end of the nineteenth century, the Irish horse have been exported to work in the British coal mines because of its strength and its small size. However, these horses were never registered and little evidence can trace their existence. The first official export of Irish horses is made by Germany. The United Kingdom officially received its first horse in 1956, when McKintosh Stuart Society of Great Britain was founded. Exports of Irish horses gradually increased, and since 1969, many companies have been working for farm preservation, improvement and marketing of the Irish horse with the support of the International Federation of Irish Horse Associations (FEIF) It is forbidden to bring a horse that was not born on the irish soil to preseve the purity of the race.
DRESSES:

All dresses are accepted by the standard race so that many different dresses can be found such as traditional bai, dark bai, black, chestnut or gray. There are also dresses deemed to be rare in the horse races or specific to primitive breeds such as the mouse, palomino, roan and the pie. In the Irish language, there are over a hundred different names for the horses dresses.

CECiiLE & LAURaa