Horses for Courses Trivia Quiz

Answer: Australian stock horse

The Australian stock horse is a strong, compact animal that can thrive on poor grazing, much like its feral Waler ancestry. Though being replaced by motor vehicles they are still used for rounding up ('mustering' if you're an Aussie) stock in mountainous terrain.

Answer: Trakehner

The Trakehner breed almost died out after the second World War when the Traken Stud, home of the Trakehner since the eighteenth century, was overrun by the advancing Soviet Army. The breed was saved by an evacuation to the west known as 'der treck' across the frozen Vistula estuary. Only 700 animals made it to safety but enough survived to re-establish the Trakehner breed in West Germany where they are prized as dressage horses.

Answer: Haflinger

Usually under 15.0 hands, always palomino and usually sturdy, the load-bearing abilities of the Austrian Haflinger are notable, to the extent that they have given their name to the small but sturdy truck used by the Austrian army.

They make good carriage horses as well; the late Duke of Edinburgh used to compete in driving competitions with a team of four Haflingers in the seventies and early eighties.

Answer: Dales pony

A close relative of the smaller Fell pony of Northumberland, Cumbria and Durham, the Dales is a champion weight carrier originally bred as a pack horse in, at the latest, the fourteenth century although descended from native pony breeds that go back to pre-Roman times.

The breed has diminished in numbers quite severely in the twenty-first century and is now classified as 'threatened' by the UK Livestock Conservancy. However, small feral herds still roam wild in the North Yorkshire Pennines.

Answer: Yonaguni

This small (usually about 11.5 hands) pony breed is only found on Yonaguni island, close to the coast of Taiwan. It is one of the eight Japanese horse breeds classed as native, although fewer than 150 remain at the time of writing (2022).

Answer: Przewalski's horse

Named for the Russian explorer Nikolai Mikhailovich Przewalski, the Dzungarian or Przewalski's horse is a small, sturdy animal with more of an appearance of the donkey about it than the average, and seems to be of a different genetic stock from domesticated breeds (however this is hotly contested by some zoologists).

It remains the only wild horse, discounting feral animals like the brumby in Australia or the mustang in North America. In the late nineties, thirty animals were released into the Zone of Alienation around Chernobyl and by 2019 the herd had grown to over a hundred individuals. Probably fewer than 1500 remain in their native Mongolia.

Answer: Tennessee walking horse

Said to be bred for fast inspection of cotton crops on plantations, the Tennessee walker is a 'gaited' horse, which is to say that it has been bred for a non-standard walk compared to the average horse breeds. In addition to walk, trot and canter, it has an intermediate pace called the rack which allows a higher turn of speed without a moment of suspension.

The Tennessee walking horse is the official state horse of Tennessee.

Answer: Basuto pony

The Basuto has a history that goes back to the mid-1600s, when they were introduced by the Dutch settlers, and seem to exhibit traits of Arab horses and Java ponies. Small feral populations established themselves and were adopted by the Basuto tribespeople of Lesotho, where the breed established themselves.

Small and extremely hardy, as well as high endurance weight carriers, they were popular with both the Boers and the British military in South Africa, which led to extensive exports of the breed, and later a big drop in numbers during the Boer war and World War One where they were used in large numbers. Attempts have been made in recent years to increase the numbers of the Basuto.

Answer: Arab

Horses with the distinctive Arab profile can be found in Mesopotamian stone carvings going back 3500 years, and pictures of Arabian horses pulling chariots appear in Egyptian art too. The rise of Islam and later the Ottoman Empire led to the export of the Arab throughout the known world, and now there are few places where the breed can't be found.

Answer: Akhal-Teke

The historian Herodotus mentions the tall, strong 'Golden' horse in his histories, and the breed was much in demand with empires in the area to improve their bloodstock, to the extent that two military expeditions were launched by the Chinese Han Dynasty to secure numbers of Akhal-Tekes, which were known to them as 'Heavenly Horses'.

In the mid-Nineties, the not conventionally sane then-President of Turkmenistan, the late Saparmurat Niyazov, made a personal gift of an Akhal-Teke to then Prime Minister of the UK, John Major. Their reputation as valuable things endures.