Bhutia and Spiti Ponies

The Bhutia and Spiti ponies found in the Himalayas of India, for example, thrive at the high altitude and are ideally suited for this mountainous region, but find the greater humidity and high temperatures of the lowlands hard to cope with.

The Akhal-Teke horse from the Karakum Desert in Turkmenistan is able to withstand the extreme heat and cold of the desert climate. There is the famous story of how some Akhal-Teke horses were ridden from Ashkhabad to Moscow in 1935.

They covered a distance of two thousand five hundred miles in eighty-four days, and the trip included a two hundred and thirty-five mile journey across the desert, in three days, with no water - a sure testament to their extreme endurance and stamina.