The is a Brazilian breed of small or miniature horse. It is native to the island of Marajó, the largest of the Marajó Archipelago in the Amazon Delta in the state of Pará. It derives from cross-breeding of horses of the Marajoara breed of that island with imported Shetland Pony stock.
History
The Puruca is one of the thirteen horse breeds recognised as Brazilian by the , the national organisation for agricultural research. It results from cross-breeding of horses of the Marajoara breed of the island of Marajó with Shetland Pony stock imported in the late nineteenth century from France. A breed society – the – was formed in 1986; its authorisation by the , the Brazilian ministry of agriculture, was revoked in 2019.
The horses number no more than a thousand in total; a conservation herd is maintained at the , on the banks of the Paracauari River in the of Salvaterra, by – the regional administration of the .
Characteristics
It is a very small or miniature horse. Average heights at the withers are for mares and for stallions and geldings; the average body weights are and respectively. The coat may be of any colour other than pinto or albino.
References
Further reading
Sávio Pinho dos Reis, Evonnildo Costa Gonçalves, Artur Silva, José Ribamar Felipe Marques, Maria Iracilda da Cunha Sampaio, Maria Rosa Travassos da Rosa Costa, P.P. Rodríguez-Gallardo, J.L. Vega-Pla (2008). Genetic variability and efficiency of DNA microsatellite markers for paternity testing in horse breeds from the Brazilian Marajó archipelago. Genetics and Molecular Biology. 31 (1): 68-72. . Maria Rosa Travassos da Rosa Costa (2008). A ilha de Marajó, o cavalo Marajoara e o mini cavalo Puruca (in Portuguese). RG News. 2 (2): 18–28. Brasilia: Sociedade Brasileira de Recursos Genéticos. Maria Rosa Travassos da Rosa Costa, José Ribamar Felipe Marques, C.S. Silva, Maria Iracilda da Cunha Sampaio, J.V.D. Bermejo, F.K.S. da Silva, J.L. Vega-Pla (2009). Distâncias genéticas em equinos (Equus caballus) por meio de marcadores microssatélites (in Portuguese). Revista Biociências. 15 (1): 38-44. E.B. Everton, A.M.C. Meneses, José Ribamar Felipe Marques, N.M.S. Freitas (2011). Valores hematológicos de equinos da raça Puruca (in Portuguese). Anais do 9º Seminário Anual de Iniciação Científica da UFRA. 1-4. N.M.S. Freitas (2012). Caracterização morfológica e ultraestrutural das células sanguíneas de mini cavalos procedentes da Ilha do Marajó, estado do Pará, Brasil (in Portuguese). Dissertação (Mestrado) - Universidade Federal Rural da Amazônia. 52p. P. Ianella, M.S.A. Maués, A.R. Caetano, G.R. Biazio, Samuel Rezende Paiva (2014). Genetic diversity and Population Structure of locally adapted horse breeds in Brazil (conference paper). Proceedings of the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock Production. (11). Concepta Margaret McManus Pimentel, José Ribamar Felipe Marques, Samuel Rezende Paiva, Luiza de Souza Seixas Melo (2017). Cavalos Marajoara e Puruca (in Portuguese). INCT: Informação Genético-Sanitária da Pecuária Brasileira. Série Técnica: Genética. 1-7. Marivaldo Rodrigues Figueiró, Naiara Zoccal Saraiva, Rodrigo Lima Sales, L.C. Marques, J.S. Costa, Relionan Pimentel Leal, José Ribamar Felipe Marques (2017). Características fenotípicas do mini cavalo puruca (Equus caballus) da Ilha do Marajó, Pará, Brasil (conference paper, in Portuguese). IV Congresso Brasileiro de Recursos Genéticos, Curitiba, Paraná, 8–11 November 2016