Suffolk Punch - History

History

The Suffolk Punch registry is the oldest English breed society. The first known mention of the Suffolk Punch is in William Camden's Britannia, published in 1586, in which he describes a working horse of the eastern counties of England that is easily recognisable as the Suffolk Punch. This description makes them the oldest breed of horse that is recognisable in the same form today. A detailed genetic study shows that the Suffolk Punch is closely genetically grouped not only with the Fell and Dales British ponies, but also with the European Haflinger. They were developed in Norfolk and Suffolk in the east of England, a relatively isolated area. The local farmers developed the Suffolk Punch for farm work, for which they needed a horse with power, stamina, health, longevity, and docility, and they bred the Suffolk to comply with these needs. Because the farmers used these horses on their land, they seldom had any to sell, which helped to keep the bloodlines pure and unchanged.

The foundation sire of the modern Suffolk Punch breed was a 15.2 hand (62 inches / 157 centimetres) stallion foaled near Woodbridge in 1768 and owned by Thomas Crisp of Ufford. At this time the breed was known as the Suffolk Sorrel. This horse was never named, and is simply known as "Crisp's horse". Although it is commonly (and mistakenly) thought that this was the first horse of the breed, by the 1760s, all other male lines of the breed had died out, resulting in a genetic bottleneck. Another bottleneck occurred in the late 18th century.

In 1784, the breed was described as "15 hands (60 inches / 152 centimetres) high, short and compact with bony legs, often light sorrel in color, gentle, tractable, strong" and with "shoulders loaded with flesh". During its development, the breed was influenced by the Norfolk Trotter, Norfolk Cob, and later the Thoroughbred. The uniform colouring derives in part from a small trotting stallion named Blakes Farmer, foaled in 1760. Other breeds were cross bred in an attempt to increase the size and stature of the Suffolk Punch, as well as to improve the shoulders, but they had little lasting influence, and the breed remains much as it was before any crossbreeding took place. The Suffolk Horse Society, formed in Britain in 1877 to promote the Suffolk Punch, published its first stud book in 1880. The first official exports of Suffolks to Canada took place in 1865. In 1880, the first Suffolks were imported into the United States, with more following in 1888 and 1903 to begin the breeding of Suffolk Punches in the US. The American Suffolk Horse Association was established and published its first stud book in 1907. By 1908, the Suffolk had also been exported from England to Spain, France, Germany, Austria, Russia, Sweden, various parts of Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Argentina and other countries.

By the time of the First World War, the Suffolk Punch had become a popular work horse on large farms in East Anglia due to its good temperament and excellent work ethic. It remained popular until the Second World War, when a combination of the need for increased wartime food production (which resulted in many horses being sent to the slaughterhouse), and increased farm mechanisation which followed the war decimated population numbers. Only nine foals were registered with the Suffolk Horse Society in 1966, but there has been a revival of interest in the breed since the late 1960s and numbers have risen continuously. The breed did remain rare, and in 1998 there were only 80 breeding mares in Britain, producing around 40 foals per year. In the United States, the American Suffolk Horse Association became inactive after the war and remained so for 15 years, but restarted in May 1961 as the draught horse market began to recover. In the 1970s and early 1980s, the American registry allowed some Belgians to be bred to Suffolk Punches, but only the fillies from these crosses were permitted registry with the American Suffolk Horse Association.

As of 2001, horses bred with American bloodlines were not allowed to be registered with the British Association, and the breed was considered the rarest horse breed in Britain. Although the Suffolk Punch population has continued to increase, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust of the UK considers their survival status critical, with between 800 and 1,200 horses in the United States and around 150 in England. The American Livestock Breeds Conservancy also lists the breed as critical. The Suffolk Horse Society recorded the births of 36 pure-bred foals in 2007, and a further 33 foals as of March 2008.