THE CIRCLE OF ANCIENT AMBLERS

The new breeds created by the cover of eastern stallions to western mares are all named for the region where they occur. Many of these breeds are still in existence and quite familiar to us: the Welsh, Dartmoor, Asturian, Galician, Navarrese, Mérens and Breton. In the not too distant past there were also the Scottish Galway, the Old Cornish, and of course the Irish Hobby.

In the past, most of these breeds produced a high percentage of amblers, and an ambler will still occasionally be born among them. However, for the past two centuries Europeans have been eliminating amblers from most of the so-called “pony” populations, especially in Britain. The last remnant population that directly descends from the Hobby, the Irish Kerry Bog horses, had been reduced to fewer than 200 surviving individuals before recent rescue efforts began.

Today, when I give a talk on Hobbies and related breeds, it comes as a total surprise to my European audiences to find not only that their own favorite breeds once ambled, but that the many gaited breeds of the Americas all trace their origin to either Iberia, Brittany, England or Ireland.