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| HORSE (Equus cavallus) - Part III Terrestrial horse, not sea horse An article by Andreas Iliopoulos On 6th of May 2002 Griza delivered one more colt, Perseus, son of Xanthos. Iole has a daughter with Xanthos as well, the beautiful and beloved young filly Calypso, while Danae gave birth to a dead female foal (Xanthos was the father) on 27th of May 2002, due to blood group incompatibility of the two parents.
Iole and Calypso
Calypso This last event, gave a lot of pain to Petros and Helen and disappointed me, as well, as I was expecting the new foal, which I was hoping that it could be a female one, for reasons I do not know and I cannot explain. Along with the Peneian horses, Petros and Helen keep Odysseus in their property. This animal is an English race horse (Thoroughbred). The animal is a gelding with several victories in his past.
Odysseus The behavior of all the animals in these two guys’ property was something unfamiliar to me, as I was used to horses that they were being handled with brutality from their owners and they were working very hard. Thus the horses I knew were encountering humans with wariness and undercovered aggressiveness due to handling. The horses that Petros and Helen do keep, look like horses, of course, they whicker as horses, they smell like horses, but on the contrary they behave as domestic cats. Actually they weren’t like this from the time they were obtained from the couple (at least the adult ones). They became so due to care and love of Petros and Helen. They do not fear of humans, as these specific humans never treat them with the help of violence (fear in other words). So they are gentle, they are tame, they have never “disagreed” when saddled or ridden for the very first time - and for all the times that someone wishes to saddle and ride them - although Petros do prefer riding without saddle, except headcollar, of course. Helen rides both, with or without saddle, but suggests everybody to learn ridding on saddle. Personally I like “naked” horses, but I believe think I’ll must follow her advice in time. Petros and Helen undoubtably like horses, but they prefer to keep the horse of the highlands of Heleia county, instead of any other breed. Petros and Helen keep this rare and endangered horses, just because they feel that this pure ancient breed must be kept, as it typifies our Hellenic heritage. They do not want to breed either champions or animals for specific reasons, although their horses show acceptable performances. They just think that it is important if this breed will be saved from the fever of manufacturing advanced creatures for profit. They think that it is stupid to mix different breeds to manufacture a “faster”, “more beautiful”, “stronger”, more “profitable” animal. All these above mentioned in quotation marks properties of the “made” breeds are highly questionable of course. For Petros and Helen, it is enough to see and enjoy the beauty of their animals. To keep them in the best condition is not a challenge anymore, but a duty for these two people. And you know what? It’s a pleasure for all of us - and not just for this very active couple - to have the opportunity to see alive, to associate and ride the same horses that our ancestors were using as models for their sculptures, as companions for their daily jobs at the fields, as champions for their horse races or as co-fighters during their wars. Petros and Helen use to name their horses after persons that participated in the Trojan campaign and Odyssey, as Homer versified, as you may already have noticed, after the names of horses of ancient Greek heroes or important ancient Greeks, taken from the Homeric epics. Besides, lot of information about the traditional Hellenic knighthood are saved because of the great poet and bard. For instance, the one of the stallions is named after Xanthos. Xanthos was one of the speaking stallions of the grate half-God hero Achilles, which he was one of the important leaders of the Trojan War. Also it is known from Greek mythology that Xanthos was the name of one of the horses of the chariot of the Sun, that the god Apollo was leading every day on the sky, from the East to the West. This stallion is a very proud one, with perfect “lines” and he is the dominant male of the herd, so sometimes he can be a bit unpredictable and clumsy with both humans and other animals. Avra (or Aura) was a nymph and she was the divine impersonation of the cool breeze. The mare Avra is an original female. A true fame fatale. Odysseus was the “brains” of the Trojan campaign and the one that gave the victory to our ancestors against the Trojans with his stalking Trojan horse. This horse is a cocktail horse. It is the taller animal in the property and a real retiring athlete. Idomeneus was the king of Creta and the grand son of king Minos. He had participated in the Trojan campaign. Idomeneus was one of the most famous personalities of his era, because of his great beauty and prudence. It was said that he had the proof of the wild boar and the impulse of the thunder This young colt is truly beautiful and having in mind both its parents I assume it will honor his name in the future. Perseus was a hero that killed a terrifying monster, the Medusa and became the king of Serifos island. He was son of Zeus and Danae. The foal is very young to be characterized yet. Although he is very beautiful (he has something of his father style) and he likes playing with humans a lot. Once he won’t see people for a day’s time, he’ll make everything when he meets one, available to play with. He even stops to be close to his mother, except the feeding time of course. He jumps on people or around them, pushes with his body against people bodies, he likes drawing people from the clothes, so he’ll gain the attention etc. To make things shorter he is an extremely beautiful and clever for legged clown. Danae was a heroine of the famous clan of the Danaoe, which they had their kingdom at eastern Peloponese. Her father hold her in prison due to a prophecy that was saying that her first born would kill him. Zeus felt in love with Danae, so he metamorphosed himself into golden rain, he entered her prison, mate with her and Perseus was born after that. The mare Danae is very tame and gentle, runs very fast and it is a very stable and reliable animal. Iole, was a Nymph also, from the ancient territory of Oechalia and she was Hercules’ mistress. Iole the mare is a very beautiful gray female horse. She likes humans a lot, but as the dominant mare of the herd, she has always some conflicts with the other mares. She gave birth to the beautiful female foal, Kalypso. Kalypso the nymph, was one of the more than 3.000 Oceanides. She was living on Ogygia island and she got three sons with Odysseus, Nausithoos, Nausinoos and Auson. The female foal has the best characteristics from its both parents. She is a lovely and beautiful horse. If she will be sold I’ll be very sad. Sterope was the one of the seven Pleiades (Pleads), daughter of the titan Atlas and the Oceanis Pleione. The name means:the one ho shines. Mare Sterope is a real star. Very tall and heavy bodied for a female horse. She is becoming tamer and tamer as long as she stays in the guys’ stables. And you may wonder what is so important with this breed. I’ll tell you only this : All the body measurements that define the phenotype of these horses are taken from the natural sized sculptures on the marbles of the Athens Acropolis, or from illustrations on ancient aggiography. A great number of such items can be seen in London museum. The ancient sculptures that were taken from lord Elgin; and unfortunately till today are under the possession of Great Britain, delineate exactly these horses. Xenophon, the ancient Greek historian, referred to this breed with many particular details that are exactly the same if someone examines one horse of this breed nowadays. It seems that the habit to shear their manes is an ancient habit and Xenophon had written about it in his «Περί Ιππικής» (Peri Ippikis = about the equestrian art) and «Ιππαρχικόν» (Ipparchicon) writings, among other things. There is a very difficult, but understandable (to «cichlidiots»), way to do horses’ breeds taxonomy. For this effort someone needs special maps with the measurements of body parts of the animal, measurements of some specific bones of the skeletons and finally DNA examinations. During the last years, after understanding the value of this breed Greek authorities began a campaign to discover and to record the specimens that belong to this strain and to other endemic breeds of our country. May be this case reminds us the difficulties on cichlids’ taxonomy and it looks alike in many ways. On the plate below are mentioned the standard body values that define the mares of the breed, as were declared from Mr. Hatziolos on 1941). Body parts Standard measurements (meters) Height of the withers 1,43 Length of the body 1,59 Depth of the girth 0,64 Perimeter of brisket 1,76 Perimeter of the canon bone 0,19 Length of the loin 0,55 Length of the head 0,63 Width between the eyes 0,18 Perimeter of the head 0,91 Width of the forehead 0,24 From the ancient era, Thessalia and Heleia were famous about their horse breeds within the Hellenic territory. The Andravidan horse is the result of breeding the highlands’ horse of Peneia and Anglonormandic horses. The main characteristic of the breed of Peneian highlands’ horses is their lateral gait pace, that is a hereditary characteristic, which makes the breed valuable. They are bantam animals, but their stamina is tremendous. Their coloration is grey, red roan or black roan, dappled grey, bay, blackbay and rarely black. They look similar to the Macedonian breed but they may grow a bit larger. They are hardy and they are adapted to live and thrive in very rough mountain land. The mares can give birth to foals even when aged 25 years old. They are fearless animals with strong bone structure. The common characteristics of the breed are featured on Olympia’s sculptures (for instance the coppery statuette of a four horses carriage of 470 BC that is exhibited in the museum of Olympia presents exactly this breed of horse) and other Hellenic ancient monuments in Greece and elsewhere. Unfortunately during Frankish domination of Moreas (Peloponese), the breed was mixed with heavy charger horses of Franks. Later, and during the Turkish occupation of the Hellenic territory, the Peneian horses were also mixed with arabic specimens. After the liberation from the Turks, the need of Greek cavalry, forced Greeks to build studs and they imported stallions from Germany, Denmark, France, Hungary and Algeria. At the end of the previous century burly horses from northern Africa and northern Yugoslavia were imported for the same reason as well. About the year 1912, Arabic stallions brought from Egypt and between 1920 and 1929 Angloarab stallions from Hungary and Nonius’ stallions used to improve the breed. So the Andravidan horse was developed. So it is obvious that this particular breed was, and still is, one step before the extinction. Fortunately the forlorn mountain territories of Peloponese and the many country side places of our country that the only activities are agricultural, have blocked the total “admixture”. Besides the need of a hardy, low demanded horse for agricultural working is essential for the local peasants, so this important ancient horse is kept till today in low numbers, of course. The specimens are not many and they are very rare though, so Petros and Helen - and some other compatriots of ours (horse breeders, Veterinarians and University teachers) - do a very important work upon this, as well as upon the other Greek breeds and all our ancestral equestrian heritage. Note: All of the photographs, were taken by Petros, Helen and myself. REFERENCES “THE BREEDS OF HORSES OF HELEIA” by I. Menegatos, M. Konstandinidou, A. Zafrakas, March 2000 The small text we feature is from this paper. “…this particular breed is important to be conserved due to scientific, national and social reasons …” I. Menegatos (Assistant Professor and Director of the Geoponics University of Athens, Department of Animal Production, Laboratory of Anatomy & Physiology of Agrarian Animals). HORSE AND ITS “CULTIVATION” by A.M. Zafrakas, Professor of the Department of Animal Production Aristotle’s’ University of Thessaloniki, 1991. NATIVE HORSEMANSHIP IN GREECE, T.A. Alifrakiotis (DVM, MS, Ph.D.) Aristotle’s’ University of Thessaloniki, 2000. |
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