Finnish cold blood Horse

Finland. Its well-known story is about a thousand years old. It has been involved in all stages of the Finnish people’s history and has been used in most fields, including as a military riding horse, carriage horse, working horse and, more recently, as a trotting horse.

The Finnish horse is used today primarily for harness racing, but its popularity has continuously increased, including as a riding horse and a hobby horse. In addition, the Finnish horse is the world’s most versatile breed and one of the fastest Heavy Draft horses in the world. Relative to its size, it can pull heavier loads than many of the major workhorses.

The Finnish Heavy Draft horse, like the Norwegian and Swedish Heavy Draft horse, is a breed with a long history going back more than 1,000 years. It is derived from native ponies crossed with heavier European Heavy Draft horses. The Finnish cold blood’s home is said to be Savolaks in central Finland, an area that is rich in forest. Due to the isolated area, the horse has been kept clean of blood from the outside.

Two different types of horses were bred; a slight fine-purpose horse that is very similar to today’s horse, and a heavy draft horse, which was used for more demanding jobs. These became the first to dominate and take over as breed type because they were more useful than the heavier types.

In 1863, the Swedish vet G.W. Sjostedt visited Finland to launch his ideas on how to find breeding horse that would be promoted for trotting. A horse breeding association was formed in the country; it hosted horse racing competitions and soon the Finnish State began to participate in the arrangements. The first state-funded trotting race went to Hameenlinna in 1865.

So it was not started with just pure Finn horses. The only criteria that existed were that the horses would be born in Finland and be at least 141 cm at the shoulders.

The growing interest in harness racing resulted in many horses bred with, among other things, Russian Orlov trotter horses. An end to unions came in 1907 when a book was started for the horse and closed it for other breeds. The first rules for the registration of that book were based on an assessment of the horse’s exterior and only purebred stallions were allowed.

In 1917, the book was opened to mares meeting the requirement that she had at least two generations of pure-bred Finnish horses in her pedigree. In 1922, this was changed it to three generations. Some local associations had brought local breeding to the studbook which gave a good basis for its recording tone.

After the book’s code, tribal farmers also bet on the horses to get larger and they selectively bred horses with great view toward the exterior of the horses and reached a successful outcome. Subsequently the energy was devoted to breeding horses with the properties of a workhorse, not just a trotting horse.

During World War II, the good draft horses became of great importance. The horse was absolutely priceless as motorisation was only partially underway in the country. Before the war, there were about 380,000 horses in Finland. In 1950 there were over 409,000. The number fell sharply in the early 1950s, in Finland as in other countries, as mechanization took over agriculture and the horse was called upon less and less.

In the 1950s it was forbidden to import Warmblood horses in Finland, while the rest of the world mostly wagered on harness racing with just Warmblood horses, such as the American trotter. In 1959, the ban was repealed and several trotting horses of Russian origin were imported, which also resulted in interest in the trotting sport, which was a boom. This became the possible salvation for the breed, being the most developed trotter in the 1960s. Today, Finland is the largest in the world of harness racing.

The Finnish horse, much used as a trotting horse, is also used for riding and driving. There are four types that are bred for different uses. There are approximately 19,500 Finn horses in Finland, of which 2,000 to 3,000 are used as riding horses. The majority of horses are used in the racetrack, and a very small portion is used for agriculture or forestry. These horses are bred mostly in Finland, but also in Sweden and Germany.

Attributes

The Finn horse is an excellent all-round horse, suitable for riding, driving, and as a trotting horse, as well as in agriculture or forestry. They are the best riding horse that has raced up to a moderate level in dressage, show jumping and eventing.

The Finnish utility horse is relatively small, but is so strong that it can take on more than the larger harness horses, relative to their size. Finn horses are hardy, healthy, quiet and docile, and live for a long time. The most common color of the horse is the typical flax color, with a reddish-brown body and light yellow to white mane. The head is medium size but quite heavy with friendly, intelligent eyes.

Today, four types of the Finnish horse are bred: trotter (J), workhorse (T), riding (R), and little Finn horse (P). The little Finn horse, or Finnish small horse, looks like the full-size horse, but the height at the withers is different for these two types. In addition to Finland, Finn horses are bred in Germany and Sweden.