The Garrano or Raça Garrana is a Portuguese breed of small horse. It is distributed principally in the North Region of Portugal, and is equivalent to the Faco Galego of Galicia in north-western Spain, which lies immediately to the north.[3]: 402
The Garrano falls within the Celtic group of Iberian horse breeds, and is genetically close to other Celtic breeds such as the Connemara, the Exmoor Pony and the Shetland.[4]: 24 Horses of this type are thought to have been introduced to the north-western Iberian Peninsula by migrating Celts in the sixth or seventh century BC; these people probably had trade relations with other Celtic populations in Brittany and Ireland.[5]: 39
A breed association, the Associação de Criadores de Equinos da Raça Garrana, was formed within the farmers' co-operative of Vieira do Minho in 1988; in 1990 it became independent, and in 1995 received official government approval.[6] The breed standard was drawn up in 1993.[7]
In 2019 the population registered in the herd-book included 335stallions and almost 2000 breeding mares, in the hands of approximately 700 breeders.[8]: 181
Characteristics
The Garrano is small, with an average height at the withers of about 125 cm for stallions and some 120 cm for mares. Average weights are 350 kg and 300 kg respectively.[2] The coat is commonly bay, often of a dark shade, and is usually without white markings. The facial profile is straight or slightly concave and the mane and tail are thick and black.[8]: 180 The horses often have other gaits in addition to the usual walk, trot and canter.[9]: 468
^José Vingada, Carlos Fonseca, Jorge Cancela, Joana Ferreira, Catarina Eira (2010). Ungulates and their management in Portugal. In: Marco Apollonio, Reidar Andersen, Rory Putman (editors) (2010). European Ungulates and Their Management in the 21st Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN9780521760614, pages 392–418.
M.L. Checa, S. Dunner, J. Martin, J. Vega, J. Cañon (1998). A note on the characterization of a small Celtic pony breed. Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics. 115 (1‐6): 157–163.
J.C. Gomes, Maria do Mar Oom (2000). Caracterizção demográfica do núcleo de garranos bravios do PNPG. Revista Portuguesa de Zootecnia. 7 (1): 67–78.
Cristina Luís, E. Gus Cothran, Maria do Mar Oom (2002). Microsatellites in Portuguese autochthonous horse breeds: Usefulness for parentage testing. Genetics and Molecular Biology. 25: 131–134.
Cristina Luís, C. Coutinho, Joana Malta-Vacas, Joana Morais, Maria do Mar Oom (2000). Genetic diversity analysis of the three Portuguese native horse breeds inferred from microsatellite data. In 27th International Conference on Animal Genetics, 22–26 July, Food Animal Biotechnology Center, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota.
Maria do Mar Oom (1992). O cavalo Lusitano: Uma raça em recuperação (PhD thesis, in Portuguese). Lisbon: Department of Zoology and Anthropology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Lisbon.
Maria do Mar Oom (2000). A genealogia do Garrano. In: Os Milenios do Garrano. Vieira do Minho: Associação dos Criadores de Equinos de Raça Garrana, pages 77–79.
Maria do Mar Oom (2000). A genética molecular na produção cavalar em Portugal. In Jornadas de Equinicultura, 2 e 3 de Março, Vila Real, Portugal.
Maria do Mar Oom, E. Gus Cothran (1996). Preliminary study of genetic variation of a feral pony from Portugal: The Garrano. Animal Genetics. 27 (Supplement 2): 17–42.
M.C. Portas, J.M. Vieira-Leite (2000). Livro Genealógico dos Equinos de Raça Garrana. In: Second Congresso Ibérico sobre Recursos Genéticos Animais, 19 e 20 de Outubro, Estação Zootécnica Nacional, Santarém, Portugal.
M.C. Portas, N. Vieira-e-Brito, I. Silva-Carvalho, J.M. Vieira-Leite (2001). La conservatión de la raza equina Garrana. Archivos de Zootecnia. 50: 171–179.
Horse breeds thought to originate wholly or partly within Portugal and Spain. Some have complex or obscure histories, so inclusion here does not necessarily imply that a breed is predominantly or exclusively Iberian.
