MOSCOW, March 28. /TASS Correspondent Viktoria Ivonina/. The Ob (or Priob) Pony horse breed, which was bred in the Far North a couple of centuries ago, has been declared almost extinct. People on the Yamal disagreed and decided to preserve the breed, and even to restore large-scale breeding - that's how the Priob Horse Farm appeared. So far, it has only one full-fledged center - in Salekhard, and another three are being completed. These fluffy and stocky horses are now used for hippotherapy.

'Kicked up a row'

Ironically (or by a lucky chance), the history of the breed's official restoration began in Arkhangelsk, to which it is absolutely unrelated. In 2022, the city hosted an event - "Revival of Northern Farms. Genetic Biodiversity of Northern Animal Breeds in Barents Region." It is an international initiative to study, preserve and promote the northern indigenous breeds of farm animals. One of the reporters said the Priob breed - local to the Yamal - had disappeared. The region's representatives attending the event got outraged - the breed does exist, well, it is not numerous yet, but it is there!

- Ours kicked up a row, - laughed the Priob Horse Farm's chairman Simon Vasiliev. - How comes there's no breed? We have a man working on it!" The event participants were about to wipe out the breed from the horse registry, but we wouldn't let them: we began to work, the governor has helped us, allocated funding for institutes to do breeding, so that they came and did all these works.

The Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region reports 70 horses of the local breed, where almost 30 are owned by Simon. The farm has managed to keep the breed clean, and to have it adapted for use in hippotherapy, the press service added. The horses are resistant to cold (in terms of adaptability to frost, this breed is only slightly inferior to the Yakut breed), they are hardy and efficient and, apparently they have an easy-going nature, they are disposed to people, get along perfectly well with children.

Getting to the North

- What did you do before breeding horses?

-Me? Used to be a policeman. I come from Chuvashia, grew up in a village. We've always had what's now called farming - we had horses, cows, all living creatures. We were six brothers, our parents had to dress and feed everyone, but how? Of course, they kept animals," he said, beckoning one of the horses.

It was a chance that brought him to Yamal, he said. In the late 1990s, life was tough everywhere. One day he went on a business trip to the North, to Kogalym. There, he chattered with the local police, how's life, what salary. Surprisingly, the police in the North were paid many times more.

- So I tell my wife: shall we go to the North? And she: fine. So we, with an eight-month-old baby, come here. We arrived in August, we see - there's a lot of water everywhere, I didn't even get where they were taking me. Then I see horses walking, well, fine, I think, if there are horses, then people are somewhere nearby, too, it won't be lonely here," the breeder laughs again.

When Simon decided to breed local horses, he took the matter seriously: in 2015, he began to build stables. That year, for the birthday he received first two horses.

- I named them after cosmonauts - Belka and Strelka. Names matter, I thought, we are due to fly," he recalls with a smile.

Once, he bought five mares at a time. He felt sorry for them, as they were about to be slaughtered - he managed to rescue them. And the horses very soon gave to him four foals. That's how it all was developing slowly. By 2022, he owned 25 horses. Simon continues to buy horses that the locals do not need any longer: in the past, the animals were used to carry water and firewood, but now all houses have plumbing and heating. The villagers are too lazy to keep such cattle, he added, it is necessary to take care of them, to mow grass, and, in order to increase fertility, to feed tubers and root crops - topinambur, carrots, beets, turnips, radishes, and white roots. It's easier to refuse.

Previously, right, there used to be more horses in villages. The locals used to have fields and mowed grass for them. Even the mail was delivered on horseback. Simon jokes - if diesel prices continue to rise, it again will be definitely cheaper to bring mail by horses. This "transport" is ecology-friendly - it goes without saying. However, not only Simon was thinking about the value of horses.

- People in the Yamal District ask me for horses to graze deer. A friend has come recently, he asked for a mare. He says he has 50 deer, bought three foals, but couldn't save them - the bear picked up two. The last one, the remaining, chases deer like a dog. Interesting it is," he said.

Both the breeder and volunteers care for horses since their birth. They also pick names - make a long list for each horse, and the stable owner chooses the name he prefers. That's how Irada, Zlata and Violet appeared there.

- They are about 15 volunteers here - girls - school and university students. They mainly do the job - they clean, train, I take care only of the most difficult ones, which the girls won't manage. But the girls are pushy, so they do almost everything. Look, they come here, small girls… they can't really climb on a horse, and yet "we'll do that".

Breed features

The horses in this stable are different from those I have seen earlier: they are no taller than a human (the height at the withers is 136 cm), "short" and fluffy. In places, the wool is covered with frost, and thus they seem even shaggier. The fur grows 5-6 cm long. Besides, they are not afraid of local mosquitoes. In the neighboring stable, Simon said, they keep Don Horses - every summer they suffer from bites, blisters, but his horses - can't care less.

The animals are adapted to the northern frosts. When we arrived, it was only -20°C - for Yamal, this is really "only". I got absolutely cold in just 30 minutes, but the horses didn't care, nine winter months to them is nothing special. What matters in severe cold is enough food - some 20 kg of hay every day. The breeder brings it from the Tyumen Region.

A Priob horse, depending on what load it has, lives up to 30 years. There are no special health problems with age, but for the teeth - they wear off a lot, and horses experience problems with gnawing.

The very first horses, with which the stable began, presently are involved in hippotherapy and are kept separately from others. The oldest horse is Mashka, she is 18-19 years old, another two are fillies of 9-10 years old, and all the others are much younger - they were born there - at Simon's farm.

He has two paddocks in the stable: one for adults, the other for mares with foals. He owns 18 animals, and another 11 are still on free grazing in the village of Pelvozh.

- The girls do not want to part with the horses, they are all sulking, crying, - Simon jokingly portrayed the sorrowful girls. - Look, some horses have been taken away to free grazing, and the girls keep asking: when will you bring them back? How can we help you? Should we fetch them? They are ready for anything, those brave girls.

Breed keepers

Nowadays, all the existing farms participate in gene pool studies to identify the Yamal breed standard. Pure Priob horses will be put on a database of breeding animals, at least 10 horses are needed for that, Simon noted. That would give a start to a major breeding.

The process is in full swing: a second stable in Salekhard is about to be ready, another one - in the village of Pelvozh, and later on a new stable will be in Muzhy. To those locations horses will be delivered from the Priob Horse Farm. The farm will keep only horses for hippotherapy - adults, at least 5 years old, with a strong back and confident gait.

The demand for Priob breeding horses is high, Simon said. They have been invited to St. Petersburg, Bashkiria.

Simon has been using a number of grants: from the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Region's Department of Natural Resources and Ecology, from the region's Department of Youth Policy, and others.