Asturcón

The Asturcón is an ancient Spanish breed of small horse or pony from the autonomous region of Asturias in the northern part of the country. It has been documented since Roman times: it has an unusual ambling gait, which was described by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia. It is of Celtic type, and shows similarity to the Pottok and Losino of Spain, the Garrano of Portugal, and the Dartmoor, Exmoor, Fell, Highland, Shetland and Welsh breeds of the British Isles.

History
The Asturcón has been known and described since Roman times; it is mentioned in an epigram of Martial, and by Pliny the Elder in his Naturalis Historia, where he describes its characteristic ambling gait. The Latin word asturco was later used for other similar small horses with ambling gait.

At about the time of the Spanish Civil War, the population of the Asturcón separated into two distinct parts, one in the sierras of Sueve and La Vita, and the other further to the west, in the sierras of El Palo, Sierra de La Bobia and Tineo. The two populations are genetically distinct.

A breeders' association, the Asociación de Criadores de Ponis de Raza Asturcón, was formed in 1987; at the time there were 23 mares registered in the stud-book. At the end of 2003, there were 1181 head registered, in the hands of 94 breeders. In 2007 the Asturcón was listed by the FAO as "endangered-maintained".

The Asturcón is thought to have given rise to the extinct Irish Hobby, and has been used in attempts to re-create that breed.

Characteristics
The Asturcón is a small horse: height at the withers is usually in the range $130 cm$, and never exceeds $147 cm$. With an average weight of some $300 kg$

In the early twenty-first century the only coat colour admitted for registration in the stud-book was black, with no marking other than a small frontal star. There was a small population of bay Asturian horses of Celtic type, but they were not registered in the Asturcón stud-book. In the breed standard published in early 2012 by the Government of Asturias, the permitted coat colours are black, bay and chestnut, still with no marking other than a small star.