Gotland pony or Gotland russ is an old Swedish pony breed. The name russ comes from a now obsolete word ross which means a riding horse or a charger and it is linked etymologically to the English word horse (in Old High German this word appeared as hros and in English a metathesis has switched the places of the -r- and the -o- whereas in Swedish only the -h- has disappeared producing ross or russ.