in
Konz, in Germany during the annual
Kermesse on
Whit Monday, wherein unmarried young men attempt to smash a wooden barrel with an iron Up to the end of the 19th century, Noriker horses were an important link in the trade between central Europe and the Adriatic. With the establishment of the
stud farm at , near
Salzburg in 1565, the phase of the refinement by
Neapolitan and
Iberian stallions began, which exerted their influence on the Noriker horse until 1806. Down to the present day this influence is visible in the
conformation of these horses:
Roman heads with a powerful and compact topline, long manes and tails, and a large number of black horses as well as blue roans, called referring directly to the Italian expression or , meaning "dark head" or "Moor (dark) head". Besides
Mohrenköpfen, the
leopard spotted coat colour, named
tiger, is still an active breeding objective of the breed, which is unusual for nearly all other European horse breeds. In 1903, the
studbook was closed, and since then Noriker horses are strictly
purebred. The Italian stud book was established in 2011, but because Noriker is a cross-border breed and Austria holds the original stud book, the AIA defers to the Austrian rules of selection. The years between the two world wars were when the popularity of the Noriker horse peaked, and the population grew constantly. However, after the
Second World War, mechanisation started to take over, though in the poorer mountainous regions of Austria the machinery was not affordable, so horses in the
Alps have continued to be part of everyday life until about 1968, when the Noriker horse population, then at 34,510 head, began to decline. The late 1970s were called the crisis of horse breeding in Europe, and within about twenty years, 80% of the Noriker horses disappeared, a fact that was directly connected to the third wave of mechanisation. By 1985, only 6,996 Noriker horses survived. While today, many draught horse breeds of Europe are endangered, the Noriker has rebounded to some extent, and currently about 10,000 Noriker horses are living in the Austrian countryside. The Noriker is also bred in Italy, predominantly in the
Puster Valley and the
Ladin valleys. The Noriker is considered an indigenous horse breed recognised by the (AIA), the Italian breeders' association, which also publishes the Italian
breed standard. The regional breeders' federation is the same as that for the
Haflinger, the Provincial Federation of South Tyrol Haflinger Horse Breeders.
The Abtenauer A smaller sub-type of the Noriker, standing about , was reared in the area of
Abtenau, in the
Lammertal to the south of
Salzburg. Unlike the main population, this Abtenauer strain did not carry the leopard-spotting gene; the most usual colours were chestnut, black and
blue roan. It had quality gaits and was noted as a good trotter. The breed's primary use was to transport wood over steep terrain. It was absorbed into the main Noriker population. == Founding sire lines ==