Читать книгу The Majesty of the Horse: An Illustrated History - Tamsin Pickeral - Страница 25

HEIGHT

15.2–16.3 h.h.

APPEARANCE

Heavy but well-proportioned frame with a well-set head and neck and muscular hindquarters. Exceptionally strong limbs with a small amount of feathering and an abundance of mane and tail.

COLOR

The Noriker displays a range of coat colorings from dark to light chestnut, dappled and/or brindled.

APTITUDE

Heavy draft, riding, meat production

THE NORIKER IS ONE OF THE OLDEST heavy draft breeds of Europe and most probably descended from the prehistoric Forest Horse and the postulated Pony Type 2. The horses take their name from the ancient Roman vassal province of Noricum, which roughly equates to modern-day Austria south of the Danube River, and were bred by the Romans in this mountainous Alpine region. However, the horses are thought to have originated in the Pindus Mountains of Thessaly in northern Greece where they were bred by the Greeks as warhorses.

The Greeks were superior horse breeders and equestrians to the Romans and placed great stock in their horses. Although Greece does not have a particularly favorable habitat for breeding horses because of the climate and resulting poor grasses, Thessaly is more productive, and consequently many of the ancient Greek horse activities were based there. Thessalonian horses were greatly admired and bred along different lines for riding, packing, draft, and war.

During the Roman conquests, these heavy Greek warhorses from which the Noriker would later develop were taken across the Alps into what is now Austria. Following Greek precedents, the Romans established a number of systematic horse breeding programs to breed horses for purpose, and through this the Noriker developed. The horses were kept and bred at high altitude among the valleys and peaks, where they became very sure-footed and hardy. A major center for the early breeding of the Noriker was the Roman Juvavum stud farm, situated close to what is now Salzburg. Many centuries later, the Salzburg area remained strongly identified with the Noriker breed, primarily through breeding programs that were implemented in local monasteries.

Very early in its history, the Noriker was developed as a versatile heavy horse capable of pulling great weights, packing goods in mountainous areas, and even being ridden. Despite its size and bulk, it remains a very versatile breed and, because of the unusual smoothness and length of its stride, also makes a useful riding horse. Its marvelous temperament, paired with great intelligence and spirit, has made it an extremely popular horse through the centuries. Today the Noriker breed accounts for approximately 50 percent of Austria’s horses, and it is still widely used in mountainous forest areas for hauling timber.

By the Middle Ages, the Noriker had developed to be a small, compact, but incredibly strong horse for its size. From around 1565 most of the Noriker breeding activities were managed by monks in the monasteries around Salzburg, and in 1574 the Archbishop of Salzburg established the first public breeding facility and the studbook. Subsequently, a rash of stud farms sprang up, and there was some introduction of Spanish, Italian, and French blood to improve the Noriker’s height and elegance. This proved successful, and the horses became extremely popular for use in jousting tournaments.

The influence of Spanish blood in the breed is apparent in the Noriker’s great quality and the freedom of its movement, but the Spanish horses also significantly introduced the spotted coat. The spotted Norikers, particularly prevalent around Pinzgauer, became known as Pinzgauer-Norikers and are now often called Spotted Pinzgauers. These horses are essentially the same breed as the Noriker, but they have a specific leopard-spotted coloring that was officially acknowledged in 1903 when a studbook for the Pinzgauer-Noriker was opened.