The Shan Horse or Shan Myinn is a

breed A breed is a specific group of domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist several slig ...

of small mountain

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million y ...

pony A pony is a type of small horse ('' Equus ferus caballus''). Depending on the context, a pony may be a horse that is under an approximate or exact height at the withers, or a small horse with a specific conformation and temperament. Compared ...

from the

Shan Highland The Shan Hills ( my, ရှမ်းရိုးမ; ''Shan Yoma''), also known as Shan Highland, is a vast mountainous zone that extends through Yunnan to Myanmar and Thailand. The whole region is made up of numerous mountain ranges separated ...

, in

Shan State Shan State ( my, ရှမ်းပြည်နယ်, ; shn, မိူင်းတႆး, italics=no) also known by the Endonym and exonym, endonyms Shanland, Muang Tai, and Tailong, is a administrative divisions of Myanmar, state of Myanmar. ...

in eastern

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

(Burma). It was traditionally bred by the

Shan people The Shan people ( shn, တႆး; , my, ရှမ်းလူမျိုး; ), also known as the Tai Long, or Tai Yai are a Tai ethnic group of Southeast Asia. The Shan are the biggest minority of Burma (Myanmar) and primarily live in th ...

of that area. It is one of two horse breeds in Myanmar, the other being the

Burmese Horse The Burmese Horse or Bama Myinn is a breed of horse from Myanmar (Burma). It is one of two horse breeds in Myanmar, the other being the Shan Horse. History The Burmese Horse is one of two horse breeds in Myanmar, the other being the Shan ...

. It is similar to the Indian Manipuri,

Spiti Spiti (pronounced as Piti in Bhoti language) is a high-altitude region of the Himalayas, located in the north-eastern part of the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. The name "Spiti" means "The middle land", i.e. the land between Tib ...

and

Bhutia The Bhutia (; sip, Drenjongpa/Drenjop; ; "inhabitants of Sikkim".) are a community of Sikkimese people living in the state of Sikkim in northeastern India, who speak Drenjongke or Sikkimese, a Tibetic language fairly mutually intelligible w ...

breeds of small horse or pony.

History

A colonial-era description of the ponies of the Shan, published in the ''Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan'' in 1901, calls them "small and coarse". According to an account from 1905, they were of similar size and type to the Mongolian, good carriers of weight, good at jumping, generally useful but slow. The population of the Shan breed was last reported to

DAD-IS DAD-IS is the acronym of the worldwide Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, within the FAO's management of animal genetic resources programme.Domestic Animal Diversity Infor ...

in 1991, when there were 9 000 stallions and 13 000 breeding mares. In 2007 its

conservation status The conservation status of a group of organisms (for instance, a species) indicates whether the group still exists and how likely the group is to become extinct in the near future. Many factors are taken into account when assessing conservation ...

was recorded by the

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)french: link=no, Organisation des Nations unies pour l'alimentation et l'agriculture; it, Organizzazione delle Nazioni Unite per l'Alimentazione e l'Agricoltura is an intern ...

as "not at risk".

Characteristics

The Shan Horse is a small, sturdy mountain horse, well adapted to hot and humid conditions and to altitudes of up to . Its coat is thicker than that of the Burmese breed. It is used as a

pack horse Pack or packs may refer to: Places * Pack, Austria, a municipality in Styria, Austria * Pack, Missouri * Chefornak Airport, Alaska, by ICAO airport code Groups of animals or people * Pack (canine), family structure of wild animals of the b ...

, as a

draught horse A draft horse (US), draught horse (UK) or dray horse (from the Old English ''dragan'' meaning "to draw or haul"; compare Dutch ''dragen'' and German ''tragen'' meaning "to carry" and Danish ''drage'' meaning "to draw" or "to fare"), less oft ...

, and for riding. The coat may be dark or

grey Grey (more common in British English) or gray (more common in American English) is an intermediate color between black and white. It is a neutral or achromatic color, meaning literally that it is "without color", because it can be composed o ...

References

Horse breeds originating in Myanmar Horse breeds {{Horse-breed-stub