Jutland Horse

The Jutland horse is the only heavy horse breed of Denmark’ bred in Jutland since the Middle Ages. The breed was mentioned in writing as early as the 1100s. Today the horse is not as large as it was before as the huge bulk is not required for work as it was needed previously. The horses are used in most Danish cities for exhibitions during special occasions.

The Breed’s most prominent stallion is also the ancestor of the German cold blood Schleswiger which closely resembles the Jutland horse.

History

There is some evidence that there was a predecessor of the Jutland horse already in the Viking Age, which began in the 800s. Anglo-Saxon art shows images of the Vikings, with their horses and these horses are very similar to the Jutland horse.

It is believed the Vikings took their horses to England and created the root of the Harness Horse or Suffolk Punch, which was used as foundation stock in the development of the modern Jutland horse.
During the Middle Ages the large and heavy Jutland horses were used as battle horses. They were bigger and more powerful than today’s Jutland horses when they needed to have strength enough to carry knights and soldiers with heavy weapons and armour.
During the 1700s there was a concern, however, that te breed was no longer required as a heavy war horse, but their was still a a demand for a smooth action farm and draft horse.

The breed was then crossed with the Danish Warmblood horse the Frederiksborg. The horses had better action and developed a new horse breed that was thinner in the body. This was a template for the Suffolk Punch horses from England, and a stallion worth mentioning was Oppenheimer LXII who was important for the development of the Jutland horse.

He was imported to Denmark in the 1860s and was a dark chestnut, and wrongly identified as a Shire horse. He became the foundation sire for the modern Jutland horse. His offspring, a colt Oldrup Munkedal, eventually was counted as the modern Jutland horse’s most prominent stallion.
During the 1950s, there were 405 stud farms in Denmark that bred and reared the Jutland horses with more than 14 416 registered mares and 2 563 registered stallions. Today that number is significantly lower as agricultural horses were replaced by tractors and machinery.
Attributes

The Jutland horses are used to pull wagons on special occasions.

The Jutland horse is a round, compact and medium haul workhorse. The Colour is the most characteristic of this breed, being palominofargen or a horse with a golden brown to dark brown body with a flaxen or almost white mane and tail.

The head is coarse with a square muzzle.
The breed is sustained, proactive and is willing to labour. Today the breed still has fetlock hair despite some farmer’s attempting to breed the horses with less hair on the legs.

The horses are calm and kind, and Denmark has suggested that the race is indefatigable, or will not die out.