Finnhorse
The Finnhorse or Finnish Horse is a horse breed with both riding horse and draught horse influences and characteristics, and is the only breed developed fully in Finland. In English it is sometimes called the Finnish Universal, as the Finns consider the breed capable of fulfilling all of Finland's horse needs, including agricultural and forestry work, harness racing, and riding. In 2007, the breed was declared the official national horse breed of Finland.
The Finnhorse is claimed to be among the fastest and most versatile "coldblood" breeds in the world. In Finland, the term "universal horse" is used to describe the Finnhorse and breeds such as the Fjord horse that are relatively small with a body type that is heavy for a riding horse but light for a draught. There are four separate sections within the Finnhorse stud book, each with different goals: to develop a heavier working horse, a lighter trotter type, a versatile riding horse, and a pony-sized animal. The combined breed standard for all four sections defines the breed as a strong, versatile horse with pleasant disposition. The average height of the breed is, and the most typical colour is chestnut, often with white markings and a flaxen mane and tail.
The exact origins of the early Finnish horse are currently not known. Because the Finnhorse breed and its progenitors were the only horses in Finland for centuries, the history of horses in Finland parallels the history of the Finnhorse itself. The documented history of the distinct breed begins at the turn of the 13th century. Outside influences by many light and warmblood breeds were recorded beginning in the 16th century, making the breed larger and more usable. An official Finnhorse studbook was founded in 1907, producing purebred animals in significant numbers for many years. Due to mechanisation of agriculture and the dismantling of Finnish horse cavalry in the late 20th century, the Finnhorse population plummeted from a high of just over 400,000 animals in the 1950s to a low of 14,100 in 1987. However, the breed managed to survive thanks to its popularity for harness racing and its versatility as a mount.
Breed characteristics
The breed standard defines the Finnhorse as a multi-purpose horse of average height and sturdy conformation. The ideal Finnhorse is easy-to-handle, versatile, and combines strength, agility, speed and endurance. Finnhorses are lively, with both a reliable and alert temperament. The breed standard encourages a horse that is "honest and sincere": eager to cooperate with humans, obedient, and willing to work. They are hardy with good endurance, robust health, and are generally long-lived. The breed standard describes the head of a Finnhorse as dry and the profile straight, not long or convex, with well-spaced, short ears. The neck should be well-shaped and not underslung or ewe-necked; the body should be on the long side, but rounded and proportionate; and the croup should neither be level nor with a too-high connection to the tail. Finnhorses are strongly muscled, with good bone, sturdy "dry" legs, and strong hooves.Finnhorses typically have thick manes and tails, and the legs have light feathering. The average height is. Pony-sized Finnhorses—under —exist and are licensed for breeding in a separate section of the stud book. Finnhorses have good gaits that are regular with elasticity, and relatively low, steady action. They are fast for a coldblooded breed, known as good trotting horses and used for harness racing.
There are four separate [|breed sections] in the Finnhorse studbook, and a Finnhorse's overall conformation should be typical of the section in which it is recorded, though some horses are registered in multiple sections.
Colours
Over 90 percent of Finnhorses today are chestnut. Flaxen manes and tails as well as white markings on the face and legs are common. As of 2007, 6 percent are bay and 1.2 percent black. Roans, palominos, buckskins and silver dapples exist in smaller numbers. The genes for other cream dilutions and rabicano are present in the gene pool. A distinctive sabino, non-SB1 pattern is moderately common, but is usually minimally expressed due to the selective colour breeding of the 20th century. A single white horse, registered as pinto and deemed "sabino-white," has been recorded in the modern history of the breed. The number of non-chestnuts is increasing due to dedicated breeding for other colours, and as of 2009, a few dozen black and grey Finnhorses exist. SW1, one of the genes responsible for the splashed white markings, has been found in individuals by genetic testing.Through the 18th and 19th centuries, chestnut in various shades was the prevailing colour of Finnish horses, making up about 40–50 percent of the breed, and bays, blacks and greys existed in much greater numbers than today: 34 percent were bay, 16 percent black, and the remaining 3 percent were grey, palomino or spotted. Wide blazes and high leg markings were rare, unlike today; bold markings became common only in the 20th century.
The change came about through selective breeding. At the turn of the 20th century, when a nationalistic spirit was high, the Finnhorse began to be considered a symbol of Finland, and purebreeding became very popular. In addition, chestnut colour was officially chosen as an official aim for breeding as the "utmost original" colour of the Finnhorse, and named the "Hippos colour" after Hevoskasvatusyhditys Hippos, the name of the recently founded Finnish national horse breeding association. Any colours other than chestnut were considered evidence of "foreign" blood, and the goal was to make the Finnhorse an all-chestnut breed. The breeding regulation of 1909 stated that no stallion "with coat of white, grey, palomino or spotted" could be accepted into the stud book. The popularity of bay and black Finnhorses dropped as well, and at least one mare was removed from the stud book solely because of her bay colour. Selective breeding combined with the export of horses in colours popular in neighbouring countries, especially bays into Sweden, and made chestnut the prevailing colour. In the earliest section of the first Finnhorse studbook, 105 of the stallions listed were chestnut and only 8 were bay. There were stallions of other colours as well, but they were not included in the first book. At one point, chestnuts made up more than 96 percent of the breed.
Because of the vigorous colour breeding for chestnut in the early 20th century, combined with a genetic bottleneck resulting from the low number of Finnhorses that existed in the 1980s, colours such as grey and cream dilutions were preserved only by a few minor breeders. In the 1980s there were fewer than ten grey and palomino Finnhorses combined. All Finnhorse carriers of the cream gene today descend from a single maternal line, founded by the palomino mare Voikko who lived in the 1920s. While both cream dilution and black are rare, there are some known smoky blacks in the breed, the first of which was a filly foaled in 2009, identified as smoky black and confirmed as such by a DNA test in 2010. The filly is considered "if not the first ever, at least the first in a long long time." In April 2010, a filly appearing to be a double cream dilute was born, sired by a buckskin and out of a palomino. She was blue-eyed and had "pink skin and very pale coat", and was officially recognised as a double cream dilute.
The roan colour is rare, and today is passed on via a single dam line that descends from the strawberry roan mare Sonja, foaled in 1936. As of 2010, only six confirmed roan Finnhorses exist, all descendants of a 1987 mare, Taika-Tyttö, great-great-granddaughter of Sonja. The second-to-last roan line died out with the passing of the 1981 stallion Jesper Jr, who had no offspring. Grey exists in one dam line, descending from mare Pelelaikka, especially through her maternal grandson E.V. Johtotähti 1726-93Ta, an award-winning stallion. The second-last grey line died in 2010 with the 1988 mare Iiris 2275-88R, who had no grey offspring.
The silver dapple gene survived for two reasons. First, it only affects black colour and therefore is "masked" in chestnuts. Second, when it does act on black and bay base coats, it produces a chestnut-like phenotype. Silver dapple bays were long registered as "cinnamon chestnuts", and silver dapple blacks as "flaxen-maned dark chestnuts".
Breed sections
The Finnhorse stud book was created in 1907. Today it has four sections: the Working section, Trotter section, Riding section and Pony-sized section In 1924, the first split in the stud book was created, with the working or draught type horses in one section, and the "all-around" or "universal" lighter trotting horses in another. In 1965, this all-around section was renamed the trotter section. In 1971, this lighter horse section was divided into three parts: the trotter, riding and pony-sized types. Today, the majority of Finnhorses are of trotter type.Draught type
The working or draught type is the oldest of the Finnhorse types, and has had its own separate breeding section since the studbook was first split in 1924. Though the oldest of the Finnhorse types, it is rare today, with a total of only about 1,000 horses registered in the working section as of 2004. Draught-type Finnhorses are heavier and have a longer body than horses of the trotter and riding types. Though relatively small compared to other draught breeds, Finnhorses have considerable pulling power and can pull very heavy loads because of the breed's good pulling technique, with powerful take-off and a low, efficient body stature during the actual pulling. The Finnish Draught type is, pound for pound, stronger than many larger draught breeds. An average horse in draught work is capable of pulling about 80 percent of its own weight, while a Finnhorse can pull as much as 110 percent. In work horse competitions, the best Finnhorses can achieve even higher results, pulling more than 200 percent of their own body weight.A draught-type horse must pass two tests in the studbook evaluation: a walking test and either a pulling or a general drivability test. The points given for the horse's performance in these tests are added to those given for its temperament and gaits, resulting in the final workability score. The horse is also given a score for its conformation. In addition to achieving the minimum scores for both workability and conformation, stallions accepted for the working-horse section of the stud book are required to trot in less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds.