Tokara pony
| Tokara pony | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Important data | |
| Origin: | Takarajima in Japan |
| Main breeding area: | Takarajima |
| Distribution: | Kyushu |
| Stick measure : | 108 - 121 cm |
| Colors : | Browns, foxes, black horses |
| Main application area: | |
The Tokara pony ( Japanese ト カ ラ 馬 , Tokara-uma ) is a Japanese horse breed that existed in this form before the European discovery of Japan. Besides the Hokkaido , Kiso , Noma , Taishu , Misaki , Miyako and Yonaguni pony, it is one of 8 endemic horse breeds still in existence in Japan.
Background information on horse evaluation and breeding can be found under: Exterior , interior and horse breeding .
Exterior
The height of the Tokara ponies ranges from 108 to 121 cm and averages 114.5 cm. It weighs about 200 kg. Most of the breed's ponies have no markings on their heads and are bay, fox, or black, with long and thick long hair. The head is large and sits on a short, low neck. The withers are strong and fleshy, the chest rather narrow. Overall, the front body is quite well built. In contrast, the rear body is relatively weak, has a knocked-off croup and the hind legs often have a cow-like position. The hooves are small.
interior
The ponies are kept outdoors day and night all year round on their humid and warm home island, even in hot and stormy weather. Only animals that are used for work are occasionally kept in the barn.
Breeding history
Today Tokara ponies live on Takara-jima , which belongs to the Tokara Islands and is administered by the Toshima Municipality in the Kagoshima Prefecture .
In prehistoric times, ponies similar to the Tokara pony were kept all over the Japanese islands. From the nearby Japanese island of Kikaigashima , the ancestors of the Tokara ponies were introduced to Takarajima around 1500 and have remained almost unchanged to this day. In contrast, the original breed on Kikaigashima has since been refined and thereby changed considerably.
The physique of the Tokara ponies is very reminiscent of some primitive ponies, the Szechuan ponies from southwest China, which, however, are not genetically closely related to them.
In 1953 there were about 43 Tokara ponies. After that, the number of horses of the breed living on the island itself steadily decreased. In 1973 there were again 44 animals. To preserve the breed, some animals were brought to the main island of Kyūshū. Today, for maintenance breeding purposes, the breed is divided into two main populations, the Kaimon Park (private breeding) herd and the Kagoshima University Iriki Farm herd . In 2001 there were 121 animals of this breed spread across Kagoshima.
The horses of the Iriki breed are usually slightly larger than horses raised on Takarajima Island.
swell
- S. Hayashida, C. Yamauchi: Studies on the Tokara Pony. (PDF file). In: Memoirs of the Faculty of Agriculture Kagoshima University. Vol. 2, No. 1, 1953, pp. 7-15.
- Ken Nozawa, Takayoshi Shotake, Shin'ichi Ito, Yoshi Kawamoto: Phylogenetic Relationships among Japanese Native and Alien Horses Estimated by Protein Polymorphisms. In: Journal of Equine Science. Vol. 9, No. 2, 1998, pp. 53-69. doi: 10.1294 / jes.9.53
- Tatsumi Oyamada, Tsutomu Hashiguchi, Koichi Yanagita, Manjiro Taketomi: On the Outline of the Breeding and Body Measurements of Tokara Horses. In: Bulletin of the Faculty of Agriculture Kagoshima University. Vol. 29, March 19, 1979, pp. 99-106.
- Country Report (For FAO State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources Process). (PDF file; 1.11 MB). Editorial Committee Office of the Japanese Country Report, Animal Genetic Resources Laboratory, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Japan.
