Although it seemed like their extinction was near, Bosnian mountain house, also known as Bosnian pony, is no longer extremely jeopardised breed, according to Enver Ziga of the International Association of the Bosnian Mountain Horse Breeders.
With hard and patient work, he said, the breeders entered this year with the number of horses that was sufficient to cross the minimum threshold, necessary to keep the breed in the international register of 200 horse breeds.
Prior to that, the situation was not promising, said Ziga. But every new foal was huge progress and every new breeder meant that all the energy and efforts were not in vain.
Besides preserving the old ‘Borike’ stable, a new one called ‘Bosnian mountain horse’ was established in Vrtoce, a place in the northwest, lying between the towns of Bihac and Bosanski Petrovac.
Now, Bosnia counts four major stables and several minor breeders with a total of 117 indigenous Bosnian ponies
The season ended with 25 new foals, 17 female and eight male.
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“Not even the oldest breeders can remember such good balance because it is usually 50-50. This is how we got a record number of baby horses and a record balance in favour of female ones, said Ziga.
But, besides these in Bosnia, there are several breeders in neighbouring countries with 70 horses in Slovenia, 23 in Serbia, 23 in Croatia, 15 in Switzerland, 25 in Germany, eight in the Netherlands and two in Austria.
“We owe a big thank you to Anton Dolinsek, the Association Chairman, for the breeding in all countries outside Bosnia and Herzegovina, and we also thank Matjaz Mesari, who selflessly gave us all necessary professional support,” said Ziga.
