Talk:Basque Pony

Difference to a Pottok?

Is this the Pottok(a) or is this actually a distinct horse breed? Anyone know? Akerbeltz (talk) 17:15, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

The works used to create the article consider it a breed, I take it "pottok" has multiple meanings, so feel free to discuss. Not impossible they are the same thing, but we will need sources. Montanabw^(talk) 01:46, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

I'm just wondering cause

• how many ancient breeds can a place have?
• both external links are to Pottoka sites
• the commons link lists Pottoka media

and I can't see any sources quotes for the article really. Which kind of leads me to wonder if Basque pony is just a (possibly made up) translation of pottoka. Akerbeltz (talk) 02:49, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

I did a search, the "Basque Pony" doesn't show up on the International Museum of the Horse site (which is a pretty solid one for all that they do repeat a lot of registry propaganda and don't have a lot of their own independent research). Pottok doesn't either, but th e Pottok DOES have a listing at another "breeds of the world" site, at http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/ which isn't a terribly great site, but it is our "if it's here, it must be a real breed, probably, and it's better than nothing" source, and even they don't list "Basque Pony" separately. Hmmm. how about slapping merge tags on these and we will see if anyone else at WP:EQUINE has info? To answer your other questions, there probably can be more than one "ancient" breed in a loose geograpic area, though usually different forms for different purposes...once you get into landrace territory, however, they get pretty similar. You may also want to surf Iberian horse. In other parts of the world, I've been scratching my head over all the various Indonesian pony "breeds," as they all seem descended from common foundation stock, yet each island insists that their "breed" is somehow unique...so we have eight separate articles...! Montanabw^(talk) 20:13, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Hey, thanks for the quick answer - shall we keep the discussion on here then? Looked at the things you suggested but on a tangent via a Basque chicken page (don't ask) was pointed to [1]. It's in Basque but in summary, the University of the Basque Country did some research (including genetic marker tests) into Basque horses. According to them, there are 4 breeds seen as Basque, the Pottoka, the Basque Mountain Horse (Euskal Herriko Mendiko Zaldia/Caballo de Monte del País Vasco), the Aurizko Horse and the Navarrese horse. Then there's some detail, marking out the meat breeds as the most cross-bred and the Pottoka as the least cross-bred. I will look into this some more before I do anything, but I suspect now that the two Wiki pages mix up the Pottoka, Pottoka cross breeds and the Basque Mountain Horse. Based on that, I think we should then shift all the Pottoka related info to Pottoka and do individual stubs for the other 3 breeds, referring in each to the cross-breeding issue. Sound reasonable? Akerbeltz (talk) 20:45, 16 November 2009 (UTC)

Ok, riddle solved. The Basque Pony = Pottoka; the Basque Mt Horse is a different breed. I'm going merging the info in my sandbox and will add a section on the naming isse, then I'll be bold and merge the two page. Akerbeltz (talk) 17:24, 18 November 2009 (UTC)

I'd like to see articles on the other breeds if it can be done! See Iberian horse for further thoughts, at least add these to the list there, perhaps. Can you also update list of horse breeds too? Montanabw^(talk) 00:19, 24 November 2009 (UTC)

Yes, I intend to do at least stubs for the other Basque horse breeds too; I just wanted to sort the Pottok as a matter of urgency as it was split across two pages and was confusing and confused. I'll add them to the list too when I do so. Thanks for your input! Akerbeltz (talk) 01:40, 24 November 2009 (UTC)