THE WORK OF THE FIRST STABLE FOR SELECTIVE BREEDING OF THE BOSNIAN MOUNTAIN HORSE "Goražda" 1907-1916.

Abstract

The existence of the Bosnian Mountain Horse as an indigenous Bosnian and Herzegovinian breed has been documented in documents since the distant past, and the ancient ancestors of this breed have been companions of the people of Bosnia and Herzegovina for thousands of years, helping people in performing all kinds of tasks both in rural households and in cities. They were also known in the Middle Ages as extraordinary pack horses that transported ore and iron and other metal products from Bosnia to major world trade centers. Organized selective breeding of this breed began for the first time in Goražde in 1907 in a stud farm where Arabian horses were already bred. The stud farm was called “Goražda”, and all the horses for the beginning of breeding were purchased in surrounding towns. The breeding construction in the stud farm is shown in several characteristic examples. The basis of the stud farm was domestic mares from folk breeding, which in the first years of the stud farm were mated with original Arab stallions, and in the second phase, crossbreeds from their own breeding were used for breeding. The stable existed until the beginning of the First World War, i.e. until 1916 when most of the horses were taken to the front. A small part of the horses was taken to Austria to Brück am Leita, where a small stud farm was established for the breeding of Bosnian mountain horses, but it is not recorded anywhere what happened to this stud farm. Although the stud farm was active for a short period of time, its establishment is very significant for the horse breeding of Bosnia and Herzegovina, because for the first time in history, the Bosnian mountain horse began to be bred in an organized manner, and in addition, the stud farm established the direction in which the breeding of this important indigenous breed of Bosnia and Herzegovina should go in the future.