Height: Around 1.40m-1.45m. Color: Chestnut, bay, dark bay, bay dun, often with dorsal stripe; a few gray, white markings are frequent. These light horses are of homogeneous type: a head with a straight profile; a rather long, slender, high-set, sometimes "stag-like" neck; narrow chest; prominent withers; slender legs; and very sloping croup. The tail is often held high.The hair of the mane and tail is rather thin, not always very long. Distribution: French Polynesia, Marquesas Islands, notably Ua Huka, nicknamed "Island of Horses". Although living in the wild, the Marquesas horse is not really fearful, but is rather curious. It is a gentle, robust, and strong horse. It is sure-footed enough to walk around the rocky slopes of the island. This is a horse used mainly for transportation, as a hunting horse, and for equestrian tourism, but also as a pack horse. There are around 3,000 horses onMarquesas Island, and they are a true local treasure.AlI the inhabitants have a horse, and they are popularamong children, and so the breed is not endangered.

Considered to be a horse population and not really a breed, the Marquesas horses have, however, lived on these islands for along time, and Paul Gauguin even painted them. They are believed to have descended from horses imported from Chile in the 1840s, and they probably have Spanish origins. These horses live for the most part in the wild and are regularly captured to be broken for riding.

法属波利尼西亚