The Ponies of Skyros

The Ponies of Skyros: The mountains to the southeast of Skyros town are home to the unique breed of ponies which exist on the island since their introduction there by the Athenians in the 8th century BC. This rare breed can only be found on Skyros and they number only a few hundreds today. Since the old times the ponies have lived, evolved and developed their unique characteristics here isolated from the rest of the Greek islands and the mainland.

The ponies are comparatively short, as they are 9.1 to 11 hands (avg. 105 cm) and small bodied owing to the low food availability in the mountains. They come in the nice coats of Bay (reddish brown hair with black mane and tail) and also rarely in Gray (white hair on black skin) or Palomino (golden brown hair with white mane and tail). Skyros ponies have small heads, wide bordered eyes, long falling manes and thin straight shoulders.