'Doomed to disappear In search of a job for ancient Portuguese pony breed

There is more life in the fog-bleached mountains of northern Portugal than the raptors wheeling overhead in search of rabbit and the invisible cows whose clanking bells ring out through the damp whiteness. The trick is finding it. 

- Sam Jones

Along the hillside, piles of fresh manure signpost the way to one of the region's most emblematic and endangered species. Before long, the curve of a dark brown neck rises from a nest of mossy rocks and winter-brown ferns.

It belongs to a Garrano, an ancient breed of pony that has lived on the Iberian peninsula long enough to appear in paintings by both palaeolithic artists and Diego Velázquez. Its strong, stocky build helped Portugal build and maintain its empire. Today, however, the Garrano is struggling to hold on.

After 16,000 years of domestication, the breed began to fall from favour in the mid-20th century as farms were mechanised, and tractors and cars replaced horses. In the 1940s, there were between 40,000 and 60,000 Garranos in Portugal. Current estimates put the total population at 1,500 to 3,000.

"A horse needs a function," says José Leite, a vet who serves as a technical adviser of the Association of Garrano Horse Breeders (Acerg).

"Without it, they're doomed to disappear. And that's what was happening here. The need for the horse as an agricultural tool ended, so the intensive breeding stopped."

Acerg is trying to ensure the breed's survival by highlighting its multifaceted potential: not only has the pony been valued as a hardy trekker since at least Roman times, but it can also pull buggies, do dressage and is an ideal animal for novice riders.

"It's about giving the breed back a purpose," says Leite, "or finding a new one".