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Charly shows you:

La Rhune 2007

the mountain of the Pottok Ponys

In the summer 2007 we spent our vacation in the French Basque country.
We wanted to regard the Pottok Pony mare judge in Ascain
and the horse market in Garris.
We also wanted to see if the Pottok Ponies are really still living half wildly in the pyreneans.

On 23 July 2007 we took the rack railway Le Petite Train de La Rhune to get up to the mountain La Rhune.
The name La Rhune derived from the basque larre-dun and means pasture place.

At a nice place under trees grazed a herd with their foals.

From the slowly driving course we could notice some Pottok Ponys in the high fern.
But there were not much sheep and horse to see.

After half an hour we arrived the peak.
There was a fresh wind blowing.
Griffon vulture were flying over the top.

a Coral for sheep with four Pottoka Ponies near by

The border between France and Spain is running on the top of the La Rhune mountain.
On the Spanish side we recognized a coral for sheep's and four Pottoka Ponies.

On the search for further Pottok Ponies we followed the mountain degree
and discovered a skeleton at a rocky slope.
We could not recognize the skull,
but it could have been an accident Pony,
which was eaten by the Griffon vultures.

Soon three black horses came up on the mountain.

a black Pottok Pony on the La Rhune mountain

One of the ponies was marked with the letter P as a fire character.
They grazed peacefully on the mountain.

social skin care by Pottok Ponys on the La Rhune

The Pottok Ponies made social skin care to one another.
When tourists approached them, they moved away.

While we drove back to the vally, we saw only one herd near to the rack railway.

basque mountains, the homeland of the Pottok Ponys

On the next day we wanted to visit the Maison du Pottok in Biddary.
But we didn't find any sign of it.
So we asked for it and we were told that it does not exist any longer.
Therefore we drove to the spanish-basque village Erratzu
and afterwards to Ainhoa searching for the Pottok-de-Montagne.

Some horse muck at the street gave us a indication that Ponies must be near.
We saw them in the farn above the road.

They stay near to a sheep stable with a watering place.
Some horses had a notch in the ear.

Some Ponies were marked with the fire character letters JH.
Some carried a belt with a bell around the neck.

A stallion accompanied the herd.
He was neither burned nor notched in the ear.
No horse bell hung at his neck.

Two sorrel mares were quite bigger than the other mares and the stallion.
Perhaps they belong to another breed?

These were the only horses we could come close to.