- Pottok
The pottok, pronounced 'pot-ee-ok' (Basque: "pottoka", "little horse" ), is a
pony native to thePyrenees of the Basque Country inFrance andSpain .The pottok's origins may lie as far back as 10,000 years ago. Ancient cave paintings in the area show pottok-like horses. They are thought to descend from the
Magdalenian horses of 14,000 - 7,000 BC. There are now only a few hundred left and all have owners, rather than freely wandering through the mountains. The pottok has a black or bay brown coat, about 1.25 m tall to itswithers , with a large head, small ears, short neck, long back and shaggy mane. It has small but sturdy hooves for mountain walking. Their adaptation to mountain life and dark colour made them ideal for use bysmuggler s. They were also used in mining work across France in the 19th and 20th centuries.has been started to protect the pony and its environment. There is much debate about how to increase numbers - whether to focus only on the pure-bred pottoks or to employ selective inter-breeding to build greater numbers of pottok-like ponies.
There are pottok fairs held in
Espelette ,Labourd in November and January. Pottoks featured in the 1935 film "Ramuntcho " byRéné Barbéris withLouis Jouvet .Bayonne 's rugby club,Aviron Bayonnais has 'pottoka' as its official mascot.The Basque name of the Smurfs is "pottokiak", probably for the connotations of smallness.
ee also
Basque Pony External links
*fr icon [http://pottok.anp.free.fr/ French National Pottok Association] (in French)
*fr icon [http://www.pottok.com/ Pottok.com] (in French)
*en icon [http://members.aol.com/kindgmk/rasse-pottok_e.html#banner/ The Pottok - the little horse from the Basque country] (in English)References
*"The Basque Country" (2002), Yasna Maznik, Hachette UK. ISBN 1-84202-159-1
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