Dareshuri

Dareshuri
Photograph from about 1900
Conservation status
Other names
  • Dareh shuri[2]
  • Shirazi[3]: 495 
Country of originIran
DistributionFars Province
Use
Traits
Height
  • 1.50–1.55 m
Colorbay, chestnut or gray

The Dareshuri is an Iranian breed of riding horse of oriental type. It is native to Fars Province in southern Iran and is associated with the Qashqai people of that area, particularly with the Dareshuri tribe for which it is named. It may also be known as the Shirazi after the city of Shiraz, the provincial capital.

It is an endangered breed: a population of 300–400 was reported in 2003. Its conservation status in 2007 was 'endangered'; in 2023 it was 'unknown'.

History

[edit]

The origins of the Dareshuri are unknown.[4]: 223  It is a traditional breed, closely associated with the Qashqai people of Fars Province in southern Iran, and particularly with the Dareshuri tribe for which it is named.[5]: 628 

The traditional semi-annual migrations of the Qashgai people from their winter pastures to the south and west of the city of Shiraz to their summer grazing grounds in the mountains to the north and west of the city lasted some four to six weeks and covered many hundreds of kilometres.[6]: 15  These journeys exerted a powerful selection for qualities of stamina and endurance in their horses.[5]: 628  In the nineteenth century Shirazi horses were cross-bred from local Persian mares and Arab stallions from Baghdad; many were exported to India, where they were known by the name 'Gulf Arab'.[7]: 609  In the twentieth century the Dareshuri renewed the blood of their horses through frequent inter-breeding with Persian Arab stock from Khuzestan, often through Bakhtiari middlemen; preference was given to horses of the Khersani matrilineal strain.[6]: 17 

The breed came to prominence under the impetus of Dareshuri tribal chiefs Ziad Khan and Hossein Khan, and later Ayaz Khan, in the late 1970s, as part of the categorization and study of Persian Arabian horses.[8][9] Members of the Dareshuri tribe insist on their Mongolian ancestry, and claim to have traveled between Iran and Syria in the time of Genghis Khan, before returning to Iran with the best Syrian Arabian horses they could find there.[8] However, this claim is not supported by written pedigree documents, and therefore cannot be proven.[8]

Genetic analysis of the principal Iranian horse breeds finds them to form a group distinct from other horses;[5]: 632  within that group the Dareshuri is closest to the Persian Arab.[5]: 632 [10]: 180 

Characteristics

[edit]

According to CAB International,[3]: 495  the Dareshuri belongs to the Persian plateau horse group.[11]

The average height is 1.50 to 1.55 m, making it one of the largest Persian horses.[12][4]: 223 [13]: 299 

The morphology is said to be dis-harmonious. The head has a rectilinear profile, concave (typical Arabian), with an eye that can be small, and a cheek bone that is narrower than in the Arabian asil. The body is slender and light, the rib cage shallow, the tail set low. The limbs are slender, ending in hard hooves. The fine skin is covered with fine, silky hair. Mane and tail are sparse, but with fine manes.[13]: 299 [12][8]

The coat can be bay, seal brown, chestnut or gray, very rarely black.[13]: 299 [12][3]: 495 [4]: 223  Markings are common.[13]: 299 

The Dareshuri is known for its docility and ease of training, proving fast and lively. Gaits are renowned for their quality. The Dareshuri's original mountain landscape is particularly rugged, which has given the breed stamina and endurance.[13]: 299 [14][12][4]: 223 

Usage

[edit]

DAD-IS indicates its main use as a transport horse;[2][3]: 495  according to Kholová, it is mainly used as a saddle horse.[12] However, a Turkish veterinary document indicates a use as a driving horse.[15]

Range

[edit]

The Darashouri is listed among the horse breeds of Iran,[4]: 223 [16] with DAD-IS classifying it as a local Iranian breed.[2] The Dareshuri is in fact an indigenous Iranian breed, specific to the province of Fars, north of Shiraz[12] and therefore in southern Iran.[13] It is not found outside the borders of its native country.[4]: 223 

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to 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.
  2. ^ a b c d Breed data sheet: Dareshuri / Iran (Islamic Republic of) (Horse). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed December 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.
  4. ^ a b c d e f Gianni Ravazzi, Victor Siméon (2010). L'encyclopédie mondiale des chevaux de race: plus de 150 races de chevaux de selle et poneys de tous les pays (in French). Paris: Éditions De Vecchi. ISBN 9782732895468.
  5. ^ a b c d Siavash Salek Ardestani, Mohammad Bagher Zandi, Seyed Milad Vahedi, Steven Janssens (October 2022). Population structure and genomic footprints of selection in five major Iranian horse breeds. Animal Genetics. 53 (5): 627–639. doi:10.1111/age.13243.
  6. ^ a b Pierre Oberling (2017 [1974]). The Qashqā'i Nomads of Fārs. Berlin; Boston: De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 9783110819304.
  7. ^ Matthew Horace Hayes (1904 [1892]). Points of the Horse: A Treatise on the Conformation, Movements, Breeds and Evolution of the Horse (third edition). London: Hurst and Blackett, Limited; New York: Charles Scribners Sons.
  8. ^ a b c d Hendricks, Bonnie Lou (2007). International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds (2nd ed.). University of Oklahoma Press. p. 486. ISBN 978-0-8061-3884-8. OCLC 154690199.
  9. ^ Khanam, R. (2005). Encyclopaedic Ethnography of Middle-East and Central Asia. Global Vision Publishing House. p. 297. ISBN 8182200644.
  10. ^ Raheleh Sadeghi, Mohammad Moradi-Shahrbabak, Seyed Reza Miraei Ashtiani, Florencia Schlamp, Elissa J. Cosgrove, Doug F. Antczak (March 2019). Genetic Diversity of Persian Arabian Horses and Their Relationship to Other Native Iranian Horse Breeds. Journal of Heredity. 110 (2): 173–182. doi:10.1093/jhered/esy061. (subscription required).
  11. ^ Porter, Valerie (2002). Mason's World Dictionary of Livestock Breeds, Types and Varieties. CABI. p. 176. ISBN 085199430X.
  12. ^ a b c d e f Kholová (1997, p. 105)
  13. ^ a b c d e f Élise Rousseau, Yann Le Bris, Teresa Lavender Fagan (2017). Horses of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691167206.
  14. ^ Peplow (1998, p. 74)
  15. ^ Türkiye Bilimsel ve Teknik Aras̨tırma Kurumu (2009). Doğa. Türk veterinerlik ve hayvancılık dergisi (in Turkish). Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey. p. 526.
  16. ^ Considine, Douglas; Considine, Glenn (2013). Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia. Springer Science & Business Media. ISBN 978-1475769180.

Bibliography

[edit]
  • Kholová, Helena (1997). Chevaux (in French). Paris: Éditions Gründ.
  • Peplow, Elizabeth (1998). Encyclopedia of the horse. Octopus Publishing Group, Ltd.


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