Sardinian

Sardinian refers to anything related to the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. More specifically it can refer to:

Sardinian Anglo-Arab

The Sardinian, Sardinian Anglo-Arab, Italian: Anglo-Arabo Sardo or AAS, is a horse breed from the Mediterranean island of Sardinia, where it has been selectively bred for more than one hundred years. It derives from cross-breeding Thoroughbred horses with Sardinian horses carrying Arabian blood.

History

In 1874 The Ozieri Army Remount Station was established to supply mounts for the cavalry units of the Italian Army. To produce horses suitable for the cavalry, indigenous Sardinian mares were crossed with oriental-bred stallions such as the foundation sire Osmanié, and, starting from 1883, also with French-bred Anglo-Arabian stallions.

In 1915, captain Grattarola, director of the Ozieri Remount Station, continued the work by crossing the best 600 available mares with stallions of Purosangue Orientale breeding, using as his founding stallions Abbajan Sciarragh, Talata u Kamsin and Etnen u Kamsin, which had all been purchased directly from Bedouin desert tribes. Later on, Thoroughbred stallions started to be utilized on the mares of mixed Sardinian and oriental ancestry. One such Thoroughbred stallion was Rigogolo (son of Havresac II).

Sarda sheep

The Sarda is a breed of domestic sheep indigenous to the island of Sardinia. It is raised throughout Italy, and in other Mediterranean countries, particularly Tunisia. The Sarda is considered to be among the best Italian breeds for production of sheep's milk; most of the milk is used to make pecorino sardo cheese. The Sarda is highly adaptable; it may be kept on lowland or on mountainous terrains, and is suitable both for intensive and for extensive or transhumant management. The long, coarse white wool is used for weaving carpets and other goods.

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries a number of attempts were made to improve the breed by cross-breeding with Merino, Rambouillet, Barbaresca, Gentile di Puglia, Sopravissana and Vissana breeds among others. These experiments invariably had a negative impact on milk production. Recent selection has been aimed at improving the conformation of the udder and at making it more suitable for mechanised milking.

The Sarda is one of the seventeen autochthonous Italian sheep breeds for which a genealogical herdbook is kept by the Associazione Nazionale della Pastorizia, the Italian national association of sheep-breeders. The herdbook was established in 1928. Total numbers for the breed are estimated at 5,000,000; in 2013 the number recorded in the herdbook was 225,207.