The Poney du Logone is a

breed A breed is a specific group of breedable domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist seve ...

of small horse or

pony A pony is a type of small horse, usually measured under a specified height at maturity. Ponies often have thicker coats, manes and tails, compared to larger horses, and proportionally shorter legs, wider barrels, heavier , thicker necks and s ...

from the area of the

Logone River The Logon or Logone River is a major tributary of the Chari River. The Logone's sources are located in the western Central African Republic, northern Cameroon, and southern Chad. It has two major tributaries: the Pendé River (Eastern Logone) in ...

Chad Chad, officially the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North Africa, North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to Chad–Libya border, the north, Sudan to Chad–Sudan border, the east, the Central Afric ...

and

Cameroon Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the R ...

, in west central Africa. It is particularly associated with the Musey or of that region, and may also be known as the Poney Musey or Poney Mousseye.

History

There are many descriptions of the small horses of the Marba-Musey people of the

flood-plain A floodplain or flood plain or bottomlands is an area of land adjacent to a river. Floodplains stretch from the banks of a river channel to the base of the enclosing valley, and experience flooding during periods of high discharge.Goudie, ...

of the middle reaches of the

in south-western Chad and northern Cameroon; among them are those of

Dixon Denham Dixon Denham (1 January 1786 – 9 June 1828) was a British soldier, explorer of West Central Africa, and ultimately Governor of Sierra Leone. Early life Dixon Denham was born at Salisbury Square, Fleet Street, London on New Year's Day, 1786, t ...

in 1826 and

Gustav Nachtigal Gustav Nachtigal (; born 23 February 1834 – 20 April 1885) was a German military surgeon and explorer of Central and West Africa. He is further known as the German Empire's consul-general for Tunisia and Commissioner for West Africa. His miss ...

in 1880. Horse-breeding in the area remained relatively unchanged until the 1980s; in 1985 the horse population there was estimated at 6000–6500 head. In 2007 the Poney du Logone population in Chad was listed as "not at risk" by the

FAO The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; . (FAO) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger and improve nutrition ...

. In Cameroon the breed is considered a relic of the past, and to be at risk of extinction.

Characteristics

The head of the Poney du Logone is not heavy, as is sometimes reported, but is well proportioned, with a slightly convex profile and wide nostrils. The principal coat colour is

bay A bay is a recessed, coastal body of water that directly connects to a larger main body of water, such as an ocean, a lake, or another bay. A large bay is usually called a ''gulf'', ''sea'', ''sound'', or ''bight''. A ''cove'' is a small, ci ...

, followed by

bay roan Roan is a horse coat color pattern characterized by an even mixture of colored and white hairs on the body, while the head and "point coloration, points"—lower legs, Mane (horse), mane, and tail—are mostly solid-colored. Horses with roan ...

chestnut The chestnuts are the deciduous trees and shrubs in the genus ''Castanea'', in the beech family Fagaceae. The name also refers to the edible nuts they produce. They are native to temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere. Description ...

and chestnut roan. The Poney du Logone is one of two horse breeds reported to show tolerance of, or resistance to,

tsetse Tsetse ( , or ) (sometimes spelled tzetze; also known as tik-tik flies) are large, biting flies that inhabit much of tropical Africa. Tsetse flies include all the species in the genus ''Glossina'', which are placed in their own family, Gloss ...

-borne trypanosomosis, or "sleeping sickness". The other horse breed reported to be tolerant or resistant is the

Bandiagara Bandiagara () is a small town and urban commune in the Mopti Region of Mali. The name translates roughly to "large eating bowl"—referring to the communal bowl meals are served in. Mainly on its Bandiagara Escarpment it has about 2,000 speakers ...

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

and

Niger Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...

History

Characteristics

References

Further reading