Camargue horse
| Camargue horse | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Important data | |
| Origin: | Rhone Delta , around the turn of the ages |
| Main breeding area: | South France |
| Distribution: | France |
| Stick measure : | 135-150 cm |
| Colors : | almost exclusively mold ; Foals, however, are born black or bay |
| Main application area: | Work , riding and pack horse |
The Camargue horse is a small, robust house horse that is mainly bred in the Camargue - the landscape around the Rhone Delta in southern France - in a wild stud .
Background information on horse evaluation and breeding can be found under: Exterior , interior and horse breeding .
Exterior
The Camargue horse is strongly built, with a short neck and steep shoulder. Mostly it is ramsnose and has strong hangings. Goat beard formation is also possible with him. The foals are dark brown to black at birth, but lighten with age. When they are around 10 years old, they are completely white. The Camargue horse is considered to be late growing and is not fully grown until the age of 7–8. Its hooves are larger than average to prevent sinking into the swamp, but they are still very hard. It has flat-headed eyes and small ears. With an average of more than 25 years, it reaches an old age for semi-wild horses.
interior
The Camargue horse is considered to be very resilient and frugal. This characteristic goes back to its harsh living conditions in the Rhône Delta, where it is exposed to extreme heat in summer and constantly cold, moist soil in the rest of the year. Then there is the mistral , which blows an average of 63 percent of the year. It can feed underwater with its nostrils closed.
Breeding history
The Camargue horse was not recognized as a breed until the 1960s. It is mentioned for the first time by Gaius Iulius Caesar , who was so enthusiastic about the horse that he had two stud farms set up in the area of Arles . There are still traces of oriental horses in the breed, which probably go back to the intermingling with Arabs and Berbers during the Moorish invasion of southern France in 730 . Any attempted crossbreeding with other races afterwards was quickly lost.
The horse, equipped with a natural cow scythe , has always served the Gardian as a welcome helper in tending the herds of fighting bulls.
use
Originally, the Camargue horse was used by the so-called " Gardian ", the French cattle herders, to work with fighting bulls . Nowadays, however, they are mainly used as riding and pack horses.
literature
- The horses of the Camargue . Geo 12/1976, pages 128–150. Publisher Gruner + Jahr, Hamburg.
See also
Web links
- Friends and breeders of the Camargue horse in Germany
- Video: Social behavior in Camargue horses - documentation behavior in stallions (outdoor recordings) . Institute for Scientific Film (IWF) 1978, made available by the Technical Information Library (TIB), doi : 10.3203 / IWF / D-1284 .
- Video: Social behavior in the Camargue horse - mating behavior and herd structure (outdoor recordings) . Institute for Scientific Film (IWF) 1979, made available by the Technical Information Library (TIB), doi : 10.3203 / IWF / D-1318 .