Mo
Noriker
Meet, Mo the mountain horse!
In January 2025, we travelled to Cornwall to retrieve this rather unusual but spectacular beast! Mo is a 10 year old gelding who has come to live at the farm park. The loss of our beloved Clydesdale Buddy in 2024 not only left a whole in our hearts but also an empty stable. Despite the deviation of losing a horse, we can find comfort in the fact that a new story, a new journey, a new chapter begins for another. We had intended on homing another Clydesdale for education purposes (& aim to do so in the future), however we have found that sometimes a horse finds you!
Mo, is a 10 year old Noriker gelding and was born in the mountains of Austria, Mo could not be further from a hairy hooved, Scottish giant that we were looking for but sometimes life has a way of steering you in another direction! Mo had come from a loving family but was in need of a permanent home and here he is!
The Noriker horse, also called the Norico-Pinzgauer and historically known as the Pinzgauer horse, is a moderately heavy Austrian draught horse breed. The Noriker is considered indigenous to the central Alpine region of Europe, and is believed to have originated around the highest mountain of Austria, the Grossglockner.
The breed played an important role in the transportation of goods through the Alps, carrying salt, gold and Celtic iron from Salzburg to Italy, and on the return journey bringing back wine and spices. This use developed a powerful, long, deep-barrelled and sure-footed draught horse as an adaptation to the alpine terrain. The use of Noriker horses in agriculture started much later, during the industrialisation period in the 20th century.
The Noriker horse is both a rare and wonderful sight in the UK!