In addition to having a great love for horses, I also have a great interest in exploring my roots - Irish on my father's side and Lithuanian on my mother's side. In a future blog I will write about Irish horses, but today I'd like to introduce you to the Žemaitukas - a horse breed which originated in Lithuania, and has been known since the 6th or 7th century. It could often be classified as a pony, as it doesn't generally reach more than 14 hands, though there is a larger strain of the Žemaitukas breed.
The horses are most often dun colored, but may sometimes be bay, black, chestnut, or palomino. They excelled as war horses, and on farms served as draft horses, but they also make excellent sport horses and riding horses. They were a foundational breed in the development of the Trakehner. The breed has been nearly extinct four times throughout history, but there are strong efforts to preserve the purity of the breed. According to Nordgen, a Lithuanian organization which seeks to preserve various Lithuanian animal species, in recent years, the Žemaitukas population increased from 42 to 833.
Thank you! I have never heard of them and they were part of the foundation of Trakehners.
They are beautiful!!!! Thank you for raising awareness!