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The Suffolk horse is the oldest
breed of heavy horse in Great Britain to exist in its present state.
The breed dates at least into the sixteenth century but all animals
alive today trace their male lines back to one stallion, a horse called
Crisp's Horse of Ufford, who was foaled in 1768. Volume 1 of the
Suffolk Stud Book is a classic among livestock books. The author,
Herman Biddell, the first Secretary of the Society, spent two years
tracing the pedigree of all animals alive at that time. These he
published in the book, which he prefaced with a fascinating history of
the breed and a contemporary account of the Suffolk and the people
associated with it. The book was illustrated by the Ipswich artist,
Duvall. The Suffolk is always chesnut, traditionally spelt with no "t" after the "s". A few white hairs well mixed with the chesnut on the body and a star, stripe or blaze is allowed. Seven shades of chesnut are recognised: bright, red, golden, yellow, light, dark and dull dark. The legs are rather short and the impression that the breed gives is that the body is too big for the legs. This shape gives the Suffolk its nickname, 'the Suffolk Punch' and its great strength. While the standard for the breed has never included a height, the preferred heights are 16.1hh to 16.2hh for a mare and 17hh to 17.1hh for a stallion. The legs are clean with no feather, thus making the working Suffolk an easy animal to care for in the stable. Temperament, so important in a working animal, is exceptionally good and a long working life and economy of feeding are well known features. Common practice on East Anglian farms was to feed the Suffolks loose in yards. The breed was clearly described in the fifteenth century and for a breed to have become established by that time it would clearly have had to have existed at least two hundred years before that. While it originated in Suffolk and the neighbouring counties, its origin like all other old breeds is unknown but it is probable that the genes for large size emanated from the area of what is today Belgium. The Suffolk has the longest unbroken written pedigree of any breed and this goes back to 1768 to a stallion known as Crisp's Horse of Ufford. At that time all the other male lines appear to have died out and this happened again at the beginning of the ninteenth century and in 1940. Apart from these obvious genetic bottlenecks, in-breeding has always been practised and it is this that gives the breed its uniformity of appearance. |