Hi there! Love to see You visiting my new blog!
This very first post will be just to tell You some things about us. And the first thing to say as a native Finnish speaker, I'm sorry for the linguistic errors in this and all the future posts! My English is not the best, but I hope it's enough. If You are willing to read in Finnish You can find more my texts in blog Varsakuiskaaja here on blogspot.com.
I am a forty year old granny of the Finnish fir forest who has no children but has horses and loves anything in nature. I may not be seen so often in the pictures, but You'll recognize me for my muddy clothes, and tree leaves and branches hanging in my grayish hair. I've developed a passion for the Pintabian horse breed, and that's the main reason I started the Instagram account Pintabian Horses Finland, and now this blog. Maybe later an account on Facebook as well, we'll see. The account You can find on Facebook by the name Pintabians Finland is a page by Annina Huovinen, the first breeder of Pintabian horses here, please check it out as well!
I live in Loimaa, South-Western part of Finland. My neighbour is the man behind AK Pintabians and his wife has all kinds of horses. She's active in horse breeding, therapeutic work with horses and many more. They both are part of the endurance riding community in Finland as well. So it was natural for me to get to know the Pintabian horse breed via them.
Pintabian is a very small breed in Finland. If I'm counting right there are somewhat twenty individuals living here currently and that's it. I assume the first person to bring Pintabians in was Annina who had spent some time in the US and while there had fallen in love with the tobiano Arabians. She bought a mare and a young stallion, and had some beautiful foals later in Finland.
More later on that stallion was about to change my life too. Antti the breeder of AK Pintabian foals bought GP Touchof Dandi (Hnds Shocknavwe x GP Kassadora) the very stallion and decided to breed the Arabian fullblood mare Automatika LT ox (Abatas LT ox x Alyva LT ox) who he owned with Tintti his wife. The first Pintabian foal here in Loimaa was born in 2020. He was named AK Sergei, and to me he was the most perfect little man ever. He stole my heart completely and I was heartbroken when he was sold to Sweden and died there soon after.
In my earlier horse life I had young warmbloods and developed a great fear for riding since I was not a very good rider but the horses were experts in bucking. Dandi the Pintabian stallion was the wisest horse I've ever seen and he let me ride him without any scary moves. Even though he still kept fooling me because of his clever mind, it's a feature in the breed. Pintabians are not simple minded, no way!
Every year there's been some foals born in Finland but the next ones and the last for Dandi here in Loimaa 2022. Antti sold Dandi to Austria and got another breeding stallion from there, Inkspots de Terackie (Terackie Psynsatonal Design x Terackie Malikah). I bought Automatika LT ox from him in December 2020 but leased her back to him, to be used in the Pintabian breeding later on. In 2022 was born AK Janosh, a full brother to the beloved AK Sergei. He was a beauty and a disappointment as he was another stallion. Antti and Tintti were not about to keep any more stallions since they allready had Inkspots.
Antti and Tintti hoped to sell AK Janosh to some other country because in Finland there really are not many interested buyers for Pintabians, not at least stallions. There was no interest in him, even though he has some blue in his eyes. Then one rainy October day was my ultimate lucky day: they said if I ever wanted to purchase him I'd better act now. I did, and I now own the full brother to AK Sergei the founding foal.
In 2023 there were two more Pintabian foals coming, AK Rustyink (Inkspots de Terackie x Automatika LT ox) and AK Dustyink (Inkspots de Terackie x Desert Rose ox), both stallions of course. After Rustyink we decided to put Automatika down after a strong career in Pintabian breeding, and so we had no Arabian full blood or Pintabian mares to breed more. We only had stallions. Antti still owns Inkspots and he has had some visiting mares these years. I'm the proud owner of Janosh, Dustyink and a pony x Pintabian cross, who is also sired by Dandi.
We've been joking about us breeding only stallions but it seems to be a fact not a joke. All the foals born here have been colts. So it's official now, we've called ourselves Etelä-Mellilän oripalvelut in Finnish, which translates to something like Southern-Mellilä stallion services. Interested mare owners are still welcome to book breedings, but at least for now there are no more Pintabian foals coming under the title AK Pintabians, mainly because they'll be stallions anyway. And it seems I'm the only buyer for Pintabian colts in Finland and I'm out of money... Now this is a joke of course.
But the breed is not dead in Finland. There's one so called purebred Pintabian foal expected next Summer who respectfully combines the two lines we've had here. Also there are cross foals born, even though the term cross is a bit misleading since Pintabian is a cross breed itself. Finnish association for horse breeding Hippos does not register Pintabian as a breed but an unrecognized equine animal. That's where we need the registration of the foals still in the US. And I think we need a breed association of our own one day.
So this is about me and my horses, us and our horses and the situation with Pintabian horses in Finland at the moment. This blog will be written by me and therefore contain also my personal opinions and judgements. They do not represent the opinions of the whole Pintabian community. My horses are young and maybe something about their development as well. And of horses in general, since I truly am an enthusiast. Hope You enjoyed reading! Feel free to contact us! You'll find our Instagram account pintabianhorsesfinland to see pictures and some info as well.
Have a lovely day, maybe with Your horses!
Anna
