Tokara-Pony

The Tokara Pony (Japaneseトカラ 馬, Tokara - uma ) is a Japanese breed of horse that existed in this form before the European discovery of Japan. It is next to the Hokkaido, Kiso, Noma, Taishu, Misaki, Miyako and Yonaguni- Pony one of eight endemic surviving horse breeds in Japan.

Background information on the evaluation and breeding horses can be found at: exterior, interior and horse breeding.

Exterior

The Height of the Tokara ponies ranges 108-121 cm and is on average 114.5 cm. It weighs about 200 kg. Most ponies of race have no markings on the head and are brown, fox and sable, with a long and thick long hair. The head is large and sits on a short neck held low. The withers are strong and fleshy, the chest rather narrow. Overall, the front body is pretty well built. In contrast, the rear body is relatively weak, has a chipped rump and hind legs often have a kuhessige position. The hooves are small.

Interior

The ponies are kept on their moist and warm island home even in hot and stormy weather all year round, day and night outdoors. Only animals that are used for work, are occasionally kept indoors.

Breeding history

Today Tokara ponies live on Takarajima, which belongs to the Tokara Islands and is administered by the municipality of Toshima in Kagoshima Prefecture.

In prehistoric times were ponies that are the Tokara Pony similar, held all over the Japanese islands. The nearby Japanese island Kikaigashima from the ancestors of the Tokara ponies were introduced about 1500 by Takarajima and remained almost unchanged there to this day. In contrast, the origin of race has since been refined to Kikaigashima, thereby changing significantly.

The physique of the Tokara ponies strongly reminiscent of some primitive ponies Szechuan ponies from the Southwest China, but not genetically very closely related to them.

In 1953 there were about 43 Tokara ponies. Thereafter, the number of people living on the island itself of race horses took off resistant. In 1973 there were 44 animals again. To preserve the breed, some animals were brought to the main island of Kyushu. Today, the race for the conservation breeding is divided into two main populations that Kaimon Park herd ( private breeder ) and the Iriki - farm herd of Kagoshima University. In 2001 there were distributed across Kagoshima 121 animals of this race.

The horses of the Iriki - breeding direction are usually slightly larger than on the island Takarajima grown horses.

Swell

  • Hayasiiida S, Yamauchi C: Studies on the Tokara Pony ( PDF file)
  • Ken NOZAWA, Takayoshi SHOTAKE, Shin'ichi ITO and Yoshi KAWAMOTO: Phylogenetic Relationships among Japanese Native and Alien Horses Estimated by protein polymorphisms Journal of Equine Science Vol 9 (1998), no. 2 pp53 -69, ONLINE ISSN: 1347-7501. PRINT ISSN: 1340-3516 doi: 10.1294/jes.9.53
  • Oyamada Tatsumi, HASHIGUCHI Tsutomu, Yanagita Koichi, Taketomi Manjiro: On the Outline of the Breeding and Body Measurements of Tokara Horses. Bulletin of the Faculty of Agriculture, Kagoshima University, Vol.29 ( 19,790,319 ) pp. 99-106 Kagoshima University ISSN: 04,530,845
  • " Country Report (For FAO State of the World 's Animal Genetic Resources Process) ," Editorial Committee Office of the Japanese Country Report, Animal Genetic Resources Laboratory, National Institute of Agro- Biological Sciences, Japan. (PDF file, 1.11 MB )
Equine coat color Miyako-Pony Equine conformation Toshima (Kagoshima)
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