Breed Standards of Zanskari Horse

Chamurti Pony

The Chamurthi is a small mountain pony of the Indian Himalayas, regarded as a distinctive breed. The Chamurthi belong to two main areas in the Indian Himalayas. The pin valley,with its several villages,to the southwest and the villages of Kibber and Chichem, to the northeast of the town of Kaja(Kaza)that lies along the Spiti River in the District of Lahaul-Spiti,Himachal Pradesh.Although primarily inhabting upland plateau of 5,000 meters or more,it is also bred and used as low as 800 meters.It is well adapted to the temperatures extremes of the ‘cold desert’ regions of Spiti and northwards in Ladakh where temperature range from -30 degrees C.to +30 degrees C.

CHARACTERSTICS HEIGHT

Relatively consistent in size,the chamurthi ranges in height from about 11h.2” to13h.2”. Although regarded locally as a horse, in Western terms it is a pony, i.e under 14.2h.h.

CONFORMATION

The Chamurthi has a good bone structure and is well muscled. Its chest is deep and the shoulders are slightly sloped.The withers are low and the back is short,but it tends to have a high, almost straight, backbone, rather than one that slopes gently down from the withers and up again to the rump.Its legs are short and sturdy.Its displays a range of head features tending to the heavy side,with small to medium eyes and ears.

COLOURING

While its size may be consistent its colouring and markings are not, Chamurthi come in a range of colours and shades,from black to light grey , palamino yellow to sorrel brown, chestnut and bay.

DISTINGUISHING FEATURES Its distinguish features are:-

  • a series of small strips slong the spine,an ancestral mark of the extinct Central Asian Wild horse (the “Przewalski” horse):

  • a series of small white patches along the spine,which incorrectly may be thought  old saddle-sore marks:

  • a slightly concave face on some indicating probable Arabian influence .

Perhaps its most distinguish feature, and the source of its value to riders, is that it is one of the worlds few natural “pacers” a five-gaited horse,that trots on its laterals rather than diagonals enabling the rider to sit comfortably without posting while the horse trots on for two or three hours at a time.

BREEDING

The source of the breed is unknown although it has much in common with the Tibetan horse.Given the fact,however than horses existed in the Himalayas, at least as early as the Indus Valley (Harrapan) Civilzation the Chirmurti could well be indigenous to northern India. As noted above, both the Asian wile horse, and the Arabians seem to found their way into the bloodline.