The Don Horse Breed Facts and Don Information

The Don Horse is a type of Russian horse breed that originated in the Steppes region near the Don River. In the Steppes area of Russia the weather conditions are cold and can become quite severe at times, so it's only natural that the Don Horse can endure such weather extremes that 95% of horse breeds could never even possibly survive. These horses are thought to have been created through the selective interbreeding of Steppe Mongolian Horses, Turkemenes, Karabakhs, Orlovs, and Akhal Teke Horses in order to create the perfect winter weather and cold weather horse.

Through the years, Don Horses began to make their marks as one of the toughest horse breeds. Because of the fact that The Don Horse is so incredibly brave, strong, and able to endure brutal weather conditions the Don Horses began to grow in popularity with ranchers who lived in northern latitudes, but the Dons became especially popular with the French Military.

Once word got out about how unique this Russian horse breed really was, farmers instantly began during 1830's to focus in on selective breeding with Don Horses of only the finest and toughest qualities in nature. Over time not only was the Don Horse breed preserved, but it was also drastically improved, making the Dons an even more highly sought out type of horse.

Although ever since the Don Horses were created, this breed has remained practically true to it's bloodlines without any mixing of horse breeds, there were however a few years were farmers began to mix small amounts of Arabian horse blood and Thoroughbred horse blood in order to improve some of the Don's physical properties and qualities. Besides the small amounts of Arabian and Thoroughbred blood added to these horses for a short while, the Don horses have stayed primarily pure of any other horse interbreeding.

Today, although the Don Horse in an incredibly wonderfully unique and friendly horse breed, they're actually now considered to be a fairly rare horse breed when it comes to their numbers. Despite the fact that Dons aren't as well known as some types of horses, that doesn't mean that Dons aren't an outstanding horse breed capable of achieving a wide variety of tasks.

 

The Don Horse Temperament and Don Information

Russian Don Horses tend to display some of the nicest, even tempered, and well behaved personalities out of all the horse breeds. The Dons do tend to be a bit on the quiet side, but don't let them fool you they're funny and playful horses at heart. There's a true maturity that the Don Horse tends to widely display, but that being said when the day is done the Don Breed is deep down just a loving, energetic horse breed that just wants to be around people.

That's why I rate the Russian Don with an overall temperament of 5 out of 5 stars.

Russian Don Horse Appearance and Don Information

Don Horses are usually a tall breed of horse that measure from 15.3 hh to 16.3 hh on average. These animals exhibit thick, handsome necks that are rather lengthy and attach to heads that are of an Eastern style and appearance. The Don Horse has a long flat back and restricting shoulders. The Dons are commonly weaker horses that are in particularly limited by their some what weak legs and quarters. Thanks to the fact that Dons have long legs, they can surprisingly make very decent jumping horses. Yes, it's needless to say that the Don Horse has it's physical faults, but it's definitely made up for with this horse breeds lovely personality and capabilities as jumping horses that are great for beginning horseback riders.

This Russian horse breed comes in Chestnut and Brown coat colors that are not overly shiny, and their coat's are visually appealing and healthy looking.

The Don Mare and Don Stallion

When it comes to the Don mare and the Don stallion horses, the Don mare tends to be shorter than the Don Stallion, so if you're looking for either a shorter or taller horse, whether you decide on a mare or stallion can sometimes help as a determining factor.