Northern Swedish draft horse
| Northern Swedish draft horse | |
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| Important data | |
| Origin: | Sweden |
| Main breeding area: | Sweden |
| Distribution: | Sweden |
| Stick measure : | 145-160 cm |
| Colors : | Browns, black horses, foxes and colors lightened by the cream gene , graver-haired horses |
| Main application area: | Forestry, carriage horses |
The northern Swedish draft horse is a very hard-working little draft horse. The neck is short and thick. The mane is very thick and coarse. The head looks square. The shoulders are sloping, so the horse has a good ability to gallop. The horse is about 1.60 m tall and can be found in all basic colors.
history
The North Swedish draft horse goes back to the old Scandinavian land races and is closely related to the Norwegian chub horse. These land races, like most European breeds, descend from the common forest horses. By the late 18th century there was no registered breed and the horses called Northern Sweden were a mix of several imported breeds; even thoroughbreds and lighter breeds were crossed. Nevertheless, northern Sweden was on the verge of extinction because it was too easy for arable farming. The increased cross-breeding of lighter cold-blooded breeds should help, but that took time. Several veterinarians founded a breed club to prevent this breed from becoming extinct. The aim of the club was to create a new, native breed of horse with the northern Swedes that were left, and improved them with the Norwegian chub horses. From 1890 on there were only crossbreeds with Dölepferden.
The purebred work began during the 19th century. In the award regulations there was a breed description for the first time with the name "Nordsvenska hästen" (Swedish: North Swedish horse), which is called North Swedish cold blood in German. Through the breeding work in the Wången stud in the province of Jämtland, which was founded in 1903, the northern Swedish draft horse has developed into a compact, very active horse with remarkable traction. Breeding of this breed in Wången was stopped in 1996. The northern Swedish draft horse developed from an old country horse to an arable horse and is therefore larger and heavier than the northern Swedish.
In 1923 a large agriculture meeting was held in Gothenburg where some local farmers demonstrated their Northern Swedish cold-blooded horses, but all horses looked different and had completely different characters; so they had nothing in common. Then they began to plan an all-embracing breed club for the northern Swedish draft horse, which should make breeding more uniform and more effective. Horse breeders and horse owners from all over Sweden gathered in Östersund in August 1923 and the association "Föreningen Nordsvenska Hästen", ie the association for northern Swedish draft horses, was founded.
In 1964 the breed was divided into two types: the North Swedish workhorse and the lighter and faster trotter type, the North Swedish Trotter.
Web links
- Breed standard and breed description of the Föreningen Nordsvenska Hästens ( memento from September 10, 2007 in the Internet Archive )