Wikipedia:WikiProject Equine/Horse breeds

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The Horse breeds task force of WikiProject Equine encompasses the various breeds of horses.

Contents

[edit] Scope

This task force aims primarily to provide a full description of the various horse breeds. The project provides guidelines for a consistent outline format, elements to include, and tasks needed to be completed.

All breed articles need to be added to Category:Horse breeds. A closely related wikipedia page is list of horse breeds, which is maintained to contain all horse and pony breeds as well as the "types" of horses that are not breeds.

[edit] Structure of Articles

The article List of horse breeds is a list of all various breeds and types of horses that currently are KNOWN to have wikipedia articles written for them. Articles that need to be created are listed on this project page as red links and a hidden text <!--"Placeholder"--> is inserted into the list article. When someone is in the process of creating an article, make the placeholder visible by removing the hidden text formatting.

Be sure to also do a search on the new article name and its common variations to be sure that it hasn't been created under a slightly different name. (For example, the project once had to merge three different articles on the Pottok, due in part to spelling variations)

Please Cite Your Sources! Many breed articles are currently tagged as unreferenced. Avoid copyright violations and peacock terms. Do not copy articles verbatim from another source. Remember to wikify article.

[edit] Basic outline

Ideally, each article on each breed needs include the following information, not necessarily in this order (depends on the article) and those articles which are stubs should have these sections added:

  • Title: Title the article for each breed based on the most common official breed name from the major registries in English-speaking nations. If no registry or names are equally split, use the most commonly used name in English language sources. If breed has the same name as a geographic region, add the suffix "horse" or "(horse)" after the name. (Arguments to be made for either style, both are used in the various horse articles, the project takes no position on the matter.) Examples: Arabian horse, Barb (horse).
  • Introduction: general information about the breed, brief history, description.
  • Infobox: Template below, gives basic information on other names, country of origin, etc. Please use only what's relevant and format properly
  • Photograph: a good-quality photo (best) or drawing (not ideal, but better than nothing) of the breed, if possible. For extinct breeds, a painting or drawing will work.
  • Characteristics of the breed:
    • sub-categories of the breed, when relevant. (example: Welsh pony, sections A, B, C, D) Need not necessarily be separate sections, depends on breed
    • Unique conformation characteristics i.e. how to recognize a horse of this breed. Please avoid peacock terms and excessively promotional tone, this is an encyclopedia. And avoid stating "characteristics" common to all breeds: for example, all well bred, well fed horses have correct legs, ears that rotate 360 degrees, manageable temperaments, friendly, soft eyes, a soft coat, and most can grow a long silky mane. Spare us this nonsense.
    • Coat colors of the breed, if relevant and please wikilink to the color articles. See articles in category:horse coat colors or article equine coat color, for correct terminology and other information. And please link "Brown" to Bay (horse) with a piped link, because genetically, Brown IS (based on current research) a subset of Bay. ("Seal Brown" however, is particularly confusing, as sometimes it describes a dark bay and sometimes used to describe a Liver Chestnut, a subset of Chestnut (coat), so best avoided altogether unless a particular breed registry uses it, then distinguish it genetically to clarify). Also, in the case of horses with particularly unorthodox coloring terms, explain the terms, but also how these terms differ from the mainstream (see Fjord horse for an example; what most call a grullo, they call a "gray." Had a hot discussion over that one )
  • Breed History: explanation of the history of the specific breed.
  • Uses: most common uses to which the breed is put or best known. Avoid laundry lists and avoid obscure uses.
  • Medical Issues: known unique medical or genetic problems that the breed can face. (Example, dwarfism in miniature horses)
  • Controversy: if relevant. (For example, see material on soring in Tennessee Walker article.)
  • Other: Some breeds have unique information that does not fit into any of the above sections and may need additional subsections added
  • REFERENCES: At a minimum, cite your sources at the end of the article under the heading "References." Ideally, footnote your sources as you go.
  • Remember to always add [[Category:Horse breeds]] to all breed articles and update the List of horse breeds
  • Templates:
    • Add the template {{Equidae}} to the BOTTOM of each article for improved navigability
    • Especially, remember to add the template {{WPEQ|breeds=yes|class=|importance=}} to the Talk Page of each article (not the main article page): It looks like this:


WikiProject Equine This article is within the scope of WikiProject Equine, a collaborative effort to improve Wikipedia's coverage of articles relating to horses, asses, zebras, hybrids, equine health, equine sports, etc. Please visit the project page for details or ask questions at the barn.
NA This page has been rated as NA-Class on the quality assessment scale
NA This article has been rated as NA-importance on the importance assessment scale
Horse breeds task force
 This article is within the scope of the Horse breeds task force.

[edit] What to avoid

  1. Please do not create a copyright violation by verbatim copy and paste from a different source. This has been the number one reason that new horse breed articles get deleted by wikipedia administrators. Write the article in your own words and use footnotes. See WP:CITE for help.
  2. Avoid sounding like promotional ad copy. Watch peacock words and flowery adjectives. If problem #1 above is avoided, this probably will be as well.
  3. Conversely, do not inadvertently "knock" the breed or implicitly "knock" another breed in comparison. Try to take a viewpoint that all breeds are valuable, each in their own special way. Some source material contains very biased viewpoints and one pillar of wikipedia is a neutral point of view. Again, if verbatim copying is avoided, this problem will probably be avoided as well. For example, even if a source claims a breed has, for example, weak loins and crooked hind legs, be aware that such negative statements could reflect bias and should not be listed as a breed characteristic (no breed wants animals with such traits). However, if there is a controversy over a weakness in the breed (such as dwarfism in the miniature horse or the assorted genetic diseases that plague many different breeds), it would be acceptable to discuss that matter in a separate section.
  4. Do not create Galleries, except under extremely unique circumstances. (The gallery in Gypsy Vanner horse used to show breed characteristics is a creative approach, though it takes up a lot of space.) Definitely do not create groups of random photos, as Wikipedia guidelines explicitly discourage "scrapbooks." Create photo galleries and gallery pages at Wikimedia commons.
  5. Don't get off topic. If an article starts to have significant content about a breed association, equestrian discipline, breed registry, or stud farm, consider removing it and creating a separate article about the organization. For example, see AQHA, Jockey Club or Claiborne Farm.
  6. Finally, please do not create a "Famous members of the breed" section. There are several reasons for this, the most notable being the wikipedia guideline at WP:WWIN that discourages lists and collections of trivia or random facts. Some of the breed articles have suffered from long "Laundry lists" of "famous" individuals, some of which lack WP:NOTABILITY. (See WP:TRIVIA) Also, because wikipedia bans advertising, listing the names of living horses can often smack of commercialism, at least unless the animal also has had its own wikipedia article created and thus passes the WP:NOTABILITY criteria. Sometimes, naming living horses can also start edit wars over which horses deserve to be called "notable" and which do not. Overall, it is better not to name very many famous horses of a breed within the breed article. The exception is in a discussion of foundation lines, when appropriate (and if equal time is given to at least the major factions, see WP:NPOV); or mention of significant accomplishments of a few individuals of a given breed that go beyond simply being this year's champion within their own breed. For examples of use of named horses in a discussion of foundation bloodlines, see American Quarter Horse#Development as a distinct breed or Morgan horse#Breed history.
Instead of listing horses within a breed article, creating a category for "Famous" members of a given breed or for related articles (such as articles about breeders, etc.) is often appropriate (for example, Category:Racehorses has hundereds of entries). Other examples are Category:Famous Warmbloods or Category:Morgan horses. However, do not overdo category creation, as too many sub-categories often result in too few entries to be of much use for those seeking additional information. Creating a category does require locating any existing wikipedia articles about famous individual horses of a given breed and then adding the category at the bottom of each article.

[edit] Participants

[edit] Similar WikiProjects

[edit] To-Do

  • Clean up tagged articles
  • Remove peacock words
  • Wikify and source articles
  • Add infoboxes to articles that do not have them
  • Locate and add appropriate photographs or other images to articles that need them
  • Add templates if not there already
To-do list for Wikipedia:WikiProject Equine/Horse breeds: edit · history · watch · refresh
This page attempts to organize and keep track of the articles on horse breeds on Wikipedia.

Create

This section lists unwritten articles on horse and pony breeds. Please insert a placeholder in List of horse breeds when adding to this list. When article is created, add it to the List of horse breeds article under the proper category and remove it from this list.

Horses

  • Arenberg-Nordkirchen
  • Australian Draught Horse
  • Azores (horse)
  • Baise (horse)
  • Blumento
  • Buohai (horse)
  • Buryat (horse)
  • Cape Horse
  • Cumberland Island horse
  • Danube Delta horse
  • Gidran or Gidran Anglo-Arab (may be an extinct breed, but needs article, is referenced in others)
  • Hessen (horse)
  • Kiso
  • Montana Traveler
  • Namib desert horse
  • Normandy Cob
  • North American Single-Footer horse
  • Sachsen Warmblood
  • Sanhe Horse Chinese breed of horse
  • Shales horse (may be a single sire, not a "breed", needs research)
  • Toakara
  • Tsushima (create as Tsushima horse or Tsushima pony) will need to also be linked at disambig page

(For the Japanese horse breeds Kiso, Miyako, Toakara, and Tsushima, note some info at) "Country Report (For FAO State of the World’s Animal Genetic Resources Process)", Editorial Committee Office of the Japanese Country Report, Animal Genetic Resources Laboratory, National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, Japan.

Ponies

Extinct Breeds

  • Spanish-Norman
  • Lofot (Norwegian) Curly

Expand
For articles that need expansion, see Category:Horse stubs

Editing
Articles in need of editing, such as spelling, punctuation, grammar can be found at the Wikipedia:Cleanup information page, and the Wikify information page might be helpful. However, due to the size of these lists, consider listing problem articles here, but also remove them when fixed:

Cleanup Dozens of articles have cleanup tags, a couple of the longer articles that need serious work include:

Need Images Many of the breed articles lack images. The ones tagged with a request are listed at Category:Wikipedia requested breed photographs. The current priorities for finding images include:

[edit] Table template

Breed Name Here
Image:Name of Image file without "Image" tag or brackets
Title the image, usually with breed name
Distinguishing features: VERY SHORT explanation of breed's distinctive features that make it unique from other breeds, do not rewrite the entire characteristics section here
Alternative names: Other names
if any
Country of origin: Country or world region of breed origin
Common nicknames: Nicknames
if any
Breed standards
Major registry: [URL to breed standards or other info Stds]
Another major registry (other nations or competing registry): [URL to breed standards or other info Stds]
Add more if needed: [Include links to all Stds]
Notes
Probably don't need this section, but for misc material that may not fit elsewhere. 
<!-- Begin Infobox Horse.  The text of the article should go AFTER this section. See: -->
<!-- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template talk:Infobox Horse -->
<!-- for full explanation of the syntax used in this template. -->
{{Infobox Horse 
|name= 
|image= 
|image_caption= 
|features= 
|altname= 
|nickname= 
|country= 
|group1= 
|std1= 
|group2= 
|std2= 
|group3=
|std3= 
|extinct= 
|note= 
|}}  
<!-- End Infobox Horse info. Article Begins Here -->

For usage information, see Template talk:Infobox Horse.

Example: American Paint Horse

Taxobox color is a variation from the standard Pink used as the background color, intended to tie in with the Animalia category in the Tree of Life WikiProject.

Minor independent organizations with separate breed standards should be in a final section of the article titled "External Links".