{{short description|Spanish breed of horse}} {{use dmy dates|date=October 2018}} {{use list-defined references|date=October 2018}} {{use British English|date=October 2018}} {{infobox horse breed | name = Asturcon | image = Asturcon.jpg | image_size = | image_alt = | image_caption = | image2 = | image_size2 = | image_alt2 = | image_caption2 = | altname = Asturian Pony | country = Spain | distribution = Asturias, elsewhere in Spain | status = {{ubl|{{nobreak|FAO (2007): endangered-maintained{{r|barb|p=108}}}}|DAD-IS (2023): at risk/endangered{{r|dad}}}} | standard = [https://web.archive.org/web/20231204180339/https://www.mapa.gob.es/es/ganaderia/temas/zootecnia/BOPA%20ASTURCON_tcm30-116609.pdf Principado de Asturias] (in Spanish, pages 2–5) | use = | colour = black | height = 130–147 cm{{r|mapa3}} | male_height = 130 cm{{r|mapa2}} | female_height = 123–125 cm{{r|guia|page=450}} | weight = | male_weight = 275 kg{{r|mapa2}} | female_weight = 250 kg{{r|mapa2}} | note = }}
[[File:XXXV Fiesta del Asturcón-2015 02.jpg|thumb|alt=a small black horse dragging a loaded wooden sled on grass|At the Fiesta del Asturcón in the Sierra del Sueve in 2015]] The '''Asturcón''' is a 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:{{r|mapa}} 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.{{r|guia|page=448}}
== 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.{{r|lands|pliny|guia|page3=448}} The Latin word ''asturco'' was later used for other similar small horses with ambling gait.{{r|lands}}
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, {{ill|Sierra de La Bobia|lt=La Bobia|es}} and Tineo. The two populations are genetically distinct.{{r|guia|page=449}}
A breeders' association, the {{lang|es|Asociación de Criadores de Ponis de Raza Asturcón|italic=no}}, was formed in 1987;{{r|acpra}} 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.{{r|guia|page=449}} In 2007 the Asturcón was listed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations as "endangered-maintained".{{r|barb|page=108}} The total population at the end of 2024 was {{val|3035}} head in 334 herds; the breeding stock consisted of {{val|1784}} brood-mares and 409 stallions.{{r|dad}}
The Asturcón is thought to have given rise to the extinct Irish Hobby, and has been used in attempts to re-create that breed.{{r|cabi|page=440}}
== Characteristics ==
The Asturcón is of Celtic type, and shows similarity to other Celtic breeds such as the Pottok and Losino of Spain and the Garrano of Portugal, and also to the Dartmoor, Exmoor, Fell, Highland, Shetland and Welsh breeds of the British Isles.{{r|guia|page=448}}
It is a small horse: height at the withers is usually in the range {{val|125|–|135|u=cm}}, and never exceeds {{val|147|u=cm}}.{{r|mapa3}} The average height for mares is variously reported at between {{val|123|u=cm}} and {{val|125|u=cm}}{{r|guia|p=450}} or at {{val|130|u=cm}}{{r|mapa2}}, with an average weight of some {{val|250|u=kg}}; stallions stand some {{val|130|u=cm}} on average, with an average weight of {{val|275|u=kg}}.{{r|mapa2}} The breed standard published in early 2012 by the Government of Asturias gives a height range of {{val|130|–|147|u=cm}}.{{r|mapa3}}
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.{{r|guia|page=449}} Since 2012 the breed standard of the Government of Asturias has allowed bay and chestnut coat colours as well as black – still with no marking other than a small star.{{r|mapa3|p=4|mapa2}}
== References == <references>
<ref name=acpra>[http://www.asturcones.com/asociacion.php La Asociación] (in Spanish). Asociación de Criadores de Ponis de Raza Asturcón. Accessed October 2018.</ref>
<ref name=barb>Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). [https://web.archive.org/web/20200623201209/http://www.fao.org/3/a1250e/annexes/List%20of%20breeds%20documented%20in%20the%20Global%20Databank%20for%20Animal%20Genetic%20Resources/List_breeds.pdf List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources], annex to: [https://web.archive.org/web/20170110125634/http://www.fao.org/3/a-a1250e.pdf ''The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture'']. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. {{isbn|9789251057629}}. Archived 23 June 2020.</ref>
<ref name=cabi>Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). [https://books.google.it/books?id=2UEJDAAAQBAJ&hl=en ''Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding''] (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. {{isbn|9781780647944}}.</ref>
<ref name=dad>[https://dadis-breed-datasheet-ext-ws.firebaseapp.com/?country=ESP&specie=Horse&breed=Asturcón&lang=en Breed data sheet: Asturcón / Spain (Horse)]. Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed October 2025.</ref>
<ref name=guia>Miguel Fernández Rodríguez, Mariano Gómez Fernández, Juan Vicente Delgado Bermejo, Silvia Adán Belmonte, Miguel Jiménez Cabras (editors) (2009). ''Guía de campo de las razas autóctonas españolas'' (in Spanish). Madrid: Ministerio de Medio Ambiente y Medio Rural y Marino. {{isbn|9788449109461}}.</ref>
<ref name=lands>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0059%3Aentry%3DAsturco "Asturco"], in: Charlton T. Lewis, Charles Short (1879). ''A Latin Dictionary. Founded on Andrews' edition of Freund's Latin dictionary''. Oxford: Clarendon Press.</ref>
<ref name=mapa>[https://web.archive.org/web/20221206083540/https://www.mapa.gob.es/es/ganaderia/temas/zootecnia/razas-ganaderas/razas/catalogo-razas/equino-caballar/asturcon/default.aspx Raza equino caballar Asturcón: Datos Generales] (in Spanish). Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación. Archived 6 December 2022.</ref>
<ref name=mapa2>[https://web.archive.org/web/20221204181634/https://www.mapa.gob.es/es/ganaderia/temas/zootecnia/razas-ganaderas/razas/catalogo-razas/equino-caballar/asturcon/datos_morfologicos.aspx Raza equino caballar Asturcón: Datos Morfológicos] (in Spanish). Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación. Archived 4 December 2022.</ref>
<ref name=mapa3>Albano Longo Álvarez (28 March 2012). [https://web.archive.org/web/20231204180339/https://www.mapa.gob.es/es/ganaderia/temas/zootecnia/BOPA%20ASTURCON_tcm30-116609.pdf Resolución de 28 de marzo de 2012, de la Consejería de Agroganadería y Recursos Autóctonos, por la que se reconoce a la Asociación de Criadores de Ponis de Raza Asturcón (ACPRA) para la llevanza del Libro Genealógico de la raza y se aprueba el Reglamento del Libro Genealógico, el Programa de Mejora y el Programa de Difusión del Poni de Raza Asturcón, de conformidad con lo dispuesto en el Real Decreto 2129/2008, de 26 de diciembre] (in Spanish). Oviedo: ''Boletín Oficial del Principado de Asturias'', Cód. 2012-06597.</ref>
<ref name=pliny>Pliny the Elder, Karl Friedrich Theodor Mayhoff (editor) (1906). [https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0138:book=8:chapter=72&highlight=asturcones ''Naturalis Historia'']. Lipsiae: Teubner.</ref>
</references>
== Further reading == {{Commons category}} {{ref begin}} * S. Dunner, M.L. Checa, J.P. Gutierrez, J.P. Martin, J. Cañon (1998). [https://www.gse-journal.org/articles/gse/pdf/1998/04/GSE_0999-193X_1998_30_4_ART0006.pdf Genetic analysis and management in small populations: The Asturcon pony as an example]. ''Genetics Selection Evolution''. '''30''': 1–9. {{refend}}
{{Spanish horses}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Asturcon}} Category:Horse breeds Category:Asturias Category:Horse breeds originating in Spain
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