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The Mongol horse (Mongolian Адуу, ''aduu'': "horse" or ''mori''; or as a herd, ''ado,'' or in Northern Khalka, ''tabun''〔Haslund, Henning. In Secret Mongolia, p. 110.〕) is the native horse breed of Mongolia. The breed is purported to be largely unchanged since the time of Genghis Khan. Nomads living in the traditional Mongol fashion still hold more than 3 million animals, which outnumber the country's human population. Despite their small size, they are horses, not ponies. In Mongolia, the horses live outdoors all year, dealing with temperatures from in summer down to in winter, and they graze and search for food on their own. The mare's milk is processed into the national beverage ''airag.'' Some animals are slaughtered for meat. Other than that, they serve as riding and transport animals; they are used both for the daily work of the nomads and in horse racing. Mongol horses were a key factor supporting the 13th-century conquests of the Mongol Empire. ==Characteristics== Mongol horses are of a stocky build, with relatively short but strong legs and a large head. They weigh about 600 lbs. and range in size from high. Their cannon bone external circumference is about . They have a slight resemblance to Przewalski's horse and were once believed to have originated from that subspecies.〔Udina, I. G. "Computer Analysis of D-loop Mitochondrial DNA Variation in Asian Horse Breeds". http://www.bionet.nsc.ru/meeting/bgrs2002/thesis/BGRS_4Volume.pdf〕 However, that theory was disproven in 2011 by genetic testing. The Przewalski's horse has been conclusively shown not to be an ancestor of any domestic horse, though it can interbreed with domesticated horses to hybridize and produce fertile offspring. Of the caballine equines, ''E. ferus,'' it is ''E. ferus ferus,'' also known as the European wild horse or "tarpan," shares ancestry with the modern domestic horse. The mane and tail of the Mongol horse are very long. Their strands are often used for braiding ropes; the tail hair can be used for violin bows. Mongolian horses have great stamina: although they have small bodies, they can gallop for 10 km without a break. Because the horses are allowed to live much the same as wild horses, they require little in the way of hoof care. The hooves are left untrimmed and unshod, and there are few farriers in the country. Mongol horses have hard, strong hooves and seldom have foot problems. Sometimes, but not always, horses will be branded. Mongol horses are very strong. When pulling a cart, a team of four Mongol horses can draw a load of 4400 lbs for 50–60 km a day.〔Cheng. P. (1984) "Livestock breeds of China." ''Animal Production and Health Paper'' 46 (E, F, S). Publ. by FAO, Rome, 217 pp.〕 Horse from different regions of Mongolia are considered to have different traits. Desert horses are said to have larger feet than average ("like camel's feet"). Mountain horses are short and particularly strong. Steppe horses are the tallest, fastest variety of Mongol horse. Specifically, the eastern Khentii Province and Sükhbaatar Province steppe provinces are widely considered to produce the fastest horses in the country. Darkhad horses are known for their strength. A Darkhad horse weighing only 250 kg. can carry a load of 300 kg—the equivalent of carrying another horse on its back. On a broader level, some Mongolian provinces are considered to be more suitable for horse rearing than others. The eastern steppe provinces are informally known as the "horse provinces" because of their suitability for horse breeding. The northern mountain provinces are considered "cow provinces," though horses are reared there as well.〔 There is a wide variety of horse colorations. People in the different regions of Mongolia favor different colors of horses and breed accordingly. The Darkhad ethnic group prefers white horses, while the Nyamgavaa prefer dun, bay or black horses and shun white-colored animals.〔 Some horses are bred for the preferences of foreign markets. Elizabeth Kendall, travelling through southern Mongolia in 1911, wrote, "I was struck by the number of white and grey ponies, and was told that horses are bred chiefly for the market in China, and this is the Chinese preference." She also observed that the northern Mongolian herds near Tuerin seemed to consist mainly of black and chestnut horses.〔Kendall, Elizabeth. ''A Wayfarer in China,'' Chapter 13. 1913. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Wayfarer_in_China/Chapter_13〕 Herdsmen breed horses primarily for color and speed, but also for conformation, disposition and lineage. In Mongolia, conformation is not stressed so strongly as it is in Western culture. There are, however, a few traits that are preferred in a horse. When walking, a horse should leave hind footprints that fall upon or outside the forefoot prints. A desirable animal should also have a large head, thick bones, a large barrel, thick legs, be tall (but not so tall as to impede winter survival), possess a thick coat for cold resistance, have a thick mane and tail, and a Roman nose; the latter is considered important because dish-faced horses are considered to have difficulty grazing.〔 Giovanni de Carpini was one of the first Westerners to describe Mongol horses, observing, "...() are not very great in stature, but exceedingly strong, and maintained with little provender." Mongol horses are frugal, hardy, somewhat wily, and tread safely in rough terrain. In Mongolia, most animals are kept roaming free, and only a small number of riding animals are caught and tethered. A nomad's herd of horses hangs out around the family's dwelling, typically grazing several miles away. The herd is allowed to choose its own pasturage with little interference from the owners. They may disappear for days at a time, and eventually the owners will go out to look for them. Once a horse has become familiarized with carrying a rider, it will be calm, friendly, and very reliable.〔 Because nature provides so well for the Mongol horse, they cost little to nothing to raise. They are a practical necessity of everyday life, in which a substantial portion of the population still live as nomads. Herdsmen regard their horses as both a form of wealth and a source of the daily necessities: transportation, food and drink. The horses typically eat nothing but grass and require very little water, a trait useful for survival in environments like the Gobi desert. A horse may drink only once a day.〔 In the winter, Mongol horses paw up the snow to eat the grass underneath. For water, they eat snow. During the winter and early spring, horses lose approximately 30% of their body weight.〔B. Bayarsaikhan. ''Traveling by Mongolian Horses,'' p. 102〕 They must regain this weight during summer and fall so as to survive another year. During particularly hard winters ("zuds"), horses may starve to death en masse or die of exposure. There is little herdsmen can do to save their herds in such conditions. In the bitter winter of 2009 - 2010, 188,270 Mongol horses perished.〔"Severe winter kills two million livestock". Montsame News Agency, Ulaanbaatar. 2010-02-11. Retrieved 2010-02-14.〕 Despite their life in semi-feral conditions, most horses live to be 20 – 40 years old. It is believed that the horse was first domesticated somewhere in the Eurasian Steppe. There has never been a time where all the horses in Mongolia were all domesticated at once; rather, wild and domesticated horses coexisted and interbred, so that there is no longer any verifiably "true" wild blood in the Mongol horses of today. However, although not considered true wild horses in the same sense as the Przewalski's horse, some feral Mongolian horses browse the steppe alongside their semi-feral domesticated kin. Unlike the mustangs that roam the West in the United States, which are categorized as a non-native species, feral Mongol horses are living in the same manner and place as where their ancestors had run and lived for hundreds of thousands of years. Occasionally the nomads will capture feral horses to add to their herds. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Mongolian horse」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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