It is considered an ancient breed of horse, particularly well adapted to the harsh mountain areas it traditionally inhabits.

Once common, it is endangered through habitat loss, mechanization and crossbreeding but efforts are increasingly made to safeguard the future of this breed.

[6] This variability in the Pottok and the Basque Mountain Horse appears to be related to the fact males range more widely and mate with more females in these feral or semi-feral herds.

[6] Tests of mitochondrial DNA revealed Pottoks are most likely to crossbreed with the Basque Mountain Horses, less so with other breeds.

[6] Its traditional range extends west as far as the Biscayan Encartaciones and east roughly as far as the Saint-Jean-le-Vieux area.

[5] The traditional core habitat are the mountains of Labourd and Navarre from about 1.500m upwards, generally on poor acidic soil and limestone formations.

[5] The winter fur (borra) is one of the key characteristics of the Pottok and can reach up to 10 centimetres (3.9 in) in length on young horses.

[5] The archetypal coat colorations are in bay range with no patterning, but today various shades of brown and black exist in Pottok herds.

[3] The census revealed that the majority of semi-feral Pottoks in Biscay live in the far northwest of the province, in the Encartaciones.

[3] The survey also concluded that the main characteristics of the Biscayan population were:[3] Semi-feral Pottoks tend to be shy and live in small, territorial herds or harems numbering between 10 and 30 mares.

Stockier ponies for agricultural work were bred by crossbreeding with draught horses, also often with a large variety of coat colours.

[8] Various reserves, for example in Bidarray in Lower Navarre or the ZAPE Society in the Aralar Range have been set up to protect the pony and its environment.

[10] In 2005 Switzerland was the only other country holding a studbook recognised by the French breed standard and regulations.