Lithuanian Horse

The Lithuanian cold blood horse is a heavy workhorse from Lithuania with its origin in the Swedish born Belgian Ardennes horses and the domestic Zemaitukaponnyer.
Finland. It was approved as a breed in 1963 and in 1964 there were over 62 000 registered breed standard animals.

The breed is being used today to create a new race with another Russian breed of pony called the Altai; this is a strong working animal and is responsible for strong out crosses with the Lithuanian horse.

History

The development of the Lithuanian cold blood started in 1879 after the breeders’ association had launched a new breed based on the domestic pony

The Zemaitukas also known as the Zhmud.Ardennes Horses were imported from Sweden and crossed with their local ponies. The new medium weight horses were again crossed with the Ardennes breed to create a heavy agricultural horse.

The Brabant and Percheron were also used as breed foundation stock. The breed programme then used inbreeding with the third-and fourth generation horses to provide crosses that produced the type of horses that was being sought.

The Erna stud had imported nearly 570 horses from Sweden, of which 175 of them were stallions. In 1951 the stud book was opened to the cross breeding programme but was closed in 1996.

The cold blooded horse development continued and in 1963, it was officially recognized as a breed. The Horses’ popularity grew rapidly when the farmers saw the potential of this workhorse that was very strong and had stamina and endurance.

From 1964, there were over 62 000 registered horses exported to Finland, Sweden, Estonia, Latvia and Germany. However, the demand for horses decreased in the 80s when the Lithuanian peasants had access to new technologies.

In 2000 to 2001 further developments began in the development of the Lithuanian cold blood breed, and more imported blood lines were incorporated into the Swedish-born Ardennes Horses.

Confirmation standards resulted in strict control over which stallions to be used in breeding. Today there are nine blood lines of the Lithuanian cold blood, and they reared on three major stud farms in Lithuania and also among peasants farmers.

The breed was also used to improve the meat quality of the Altiaponnyer. The crosses were succesful in breeding a horse with a fine temperament.

Stud farms in Lithuania are still developing the Lithuanian cold blood horse and the approximately 20% of all Lithuania’s equine population consists of the breed today.

Attributes

The Lithuanian cold blood is a fairly typical specimen of working horses. They live a long time and have high fertility. The horses are also good doers and can live outside year round on pasture.

The colour of these horses is usually Flax but they are also available in grey, brown or black.

The horses are strong and muscular, with big heads, but with relatively small eyes and nostrils. The neck is strong and muscular with a slight bend.

The horses do not have confirmation problems with the hind legs and hooves as is common with many other heavy harness horse types. Their hooves are well formed and strong.

The Lithuanian cold blood is bred to have a good temperament and good humour, and they are friendly, easy to handle and calm.