Black Forest cold blood
| Black Forest cold blood | |
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| Important data | |
| Origin: | Germany |
| Main breeding area: | Black Forest |
| Distribution: | low |
| Stick measure : | 148-160 cm |
| Colors : | Foxes and black horses with light manes, a gray and a brown family |
| Main application area: | Forest work, leisure horse, work horse |
The Black Forest Cold Blood (also: Schwarzwälder, Schwarzwälder Fuchs, St. Märgener Fuchs, Wälderpferd) is an old horse breed that was bred especially for heavy forest work under unfavorable conditions in the Black Forest , but is now enjoying increasing popularity as a leisure horse. It is on the red list of endangered domestic livestock breeds in Germany . In 2012 there were more than 700 broodmares and around 40 licensed stallions in Germany.
Background information on horse evaluation and breeding can be found under: Exterior , interior and horse breeding .
Exterior
Black Forests are usually foxes or dark foxes with a light-colored mane. It can also be brown, very rare is a gray or black horse. They have a height of 148 to 160 cm, a short, distinctive head, strong neck, sloping shoulder, wide croup and expansive corridors. The weight is 600–700 kg. In the past two decades, the goal of breeding to be slightly taller than before has been pursued and achieved, as the horses should not only do step work and are increasingly used for driving as well as for riding.
Studies of coat color and color genetics
Although almost all Black Forest cold-blooded animals are traditionally light foxes, i.e. have a reddish coat with a light mane and a light tail, there are, as described above, very few animals of other colors. Since some horses of this breed can have an extremely dark coat color with light long hair, discussions arise again and again about whether these animals are very dark light foxes or black horses with the wind color gene , which brightens black long hair. In various studies, however, genetic tests have shown that the first assumption is correct. The dark representatives of the Black Forest cold-blooded animals are also genetically foxes (dark chestnut / cabbage fox).
Interestingly, however, another genetic study has shown that the wind color gene , which has no effect on the coat color in fox-colored horses and is only worn concealed there, is still present in a very low percentage (0.8%) in Black Forest draft horses. Most likely it was introduced into the breed many generations ago and presumably by an Ardennes . Due to the lack of effect in foxes, however, there was no reason to select this gene and it was largely lost.
interior
The long-lived, tough Black Forest foxes are characterized by frugality and good-naturedness. They had to prove themselves in their original home with irregular and hard work as well as limited food and space in the harsh winter of the southern Black Forest. Attempts to cross with other cold-blooded breeds around 1900 failed.
The Black Forest is used as a work and leisure riding horse.
Breeding history
The breeding history of these horses goes back to the Middle Ages. The earliest records of the "forest horse" can be found in monasteries and date from the beginning of the 15th century. The forest horse was bred by farmers in the Black Forest and is genealogically assigned to the Noriker group of horse breeds. A stud book has been kept since 1896 and the Black Forest Horse Breeding Cooperative (St. Märgen) was founded. This went on in 1936 in the Baden horse studbook (Karlsruhe). After the Second World War there were still 1,234 mares recorded in the stud book. At this time there was a division into two family records (Heidelberg and Neustadt). A merger was only achieved in 1978 when the horse breeding association Baden-Württemberg e. V. was created.
Unfortunately, from 1947, as with almost all cold-blooded breeds, the motorization of agriculture and transport led to a massive decline in the number of Black Forest cold-blooded horses, which reached its lowest point in 1977 with 159 mares and extinguished a total of seven of the previous nine stallion lines. The D line established by the stallion Deutschritter and the M line established by the stallion Mittler remained.
Influences of other breeds
The type of the "forest horse", which is coveted again today, would not have been preserved between 1880 and 1960 without the resistance of the mare owners. In 1880 the licensing law came into force, on the basis of which the state stud in Karlsruhe attempted to significantly change the type of the Baden draft horse by crossing heavy foreign cold blood breeds. The farmers in the Black Forest fought against this by continuing to use unapproved forest-type stallions for breeding, despite the threat of high fines. There were also practical reasons for this, because many of the heavy crossbred animals were only of limited use for the harsh conditions, work in the Black Forest terrain and further breeding. An exception was the Ardennes stallion Marquis, who was licensed at the beginning of the 20th century and can be found in many family trees of Black Forest draft horses.
In the last few decades, due to the low number of pure-bred mares, it became necessary to allow individual stallions of other breeds to be bred in order to avoid excessive inbreeding. For this purpose, Noriker and Freiberger were chosen in particular, whose physique corresponded to the type of the lighter Black Forest draft horse and, just like this, were well adapted to barren mountain regions. With the Noriker stallion named Reith-Nero, a new R-line was founded in the seventies and a new W-line with Wirts-Diamant. The Freiberg stallion Hauenstein brought new blood into the breed via the mare's side and in the eighties the Freiberg stallion Dayan founded the F-line. The youngest lines were created in the nineties with the help of the Schleswig draft stallion Varus (V-line) and the Noriker stallion Riff-Vulkan (K-line).
In 2002, 236 Black Forest draft horses (mares and stallions) of the M-Line, 185 of the R-Line, 155 of the D-Line, 90 of the W-Line, 16 of the F-Line, 7 of the K-Line and 4 of the V -Line assigned.
Sire stallions are today z. B. in the various stations of the main and state stud Marbach .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ pzv-bw.de
- ^ S. Mömke, R. Schrimpf, C. Dierks, O. Distl: Incidence of Mutation for Silver Coat Color in Black Forest Horses. In: IJAS. 3 (4), 2013, pp. 859-861. http://www.sid.ir/en/VEWSSID/J_pdf/1034220130430.pdf
- ^ O. Frey: Baden-Württemberg's horses. Franckhsche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1984, pp. 110-146.
- ^ M. Weber: Status and further development of the Black Forest cold blood breeding in Baden-Württemberg at the turn of the century 2000/2001: Development of the cold blood breeding from 1947 until today. Festschrift for the 23rd day of the Black Forest horse. St. Märgen parish, 2001.
- ↑ M. Weber: Care of native breeds threatened with extinction, illustrated using the example of the Black Forest foxes in Baden-Württemberg. Horse Breeding Association of Baden-Württemberg, 2009.
- ^ O. Frey: Baden-Württemberg's horses. Franckhsche Verlagshandlung, Stuttgart 1984, pp. 110-146.
- ↑ K. Aberle, J. Wrede, O. Distl: Analysis of the population structure of the Black Forest cold blood. In: Berlin and Munich veterinary weekly. 116, 2003, pp. 333-339.
literature
- Thomas Armbruster, Wolf Brodauf, Gerhard Schröder: Black Forest Cold Blood - history and stories. Volume I, Schillinger-Verlag, Freiburg 2007, ISBN 978-3-89155-333-6 .
- Thomas Armbruster, Wolf Brodauf, Gerhard Schröder: Black Forest Cold Blood - history and stories. Volume II, Schillinger-Verlag, Freiburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-89155-356-5 .
- Thomas Armbruster, Wolf Brodauf, Gerhard Schröder: Black Forest Cold Blood - history and stories. Volume III, Schillinger-Verlag, Freiburg 2013, ISBN 978-3-89155-382-4 .
- HH Sambraus: Endangered farm animal breeds . Verlag Eugen Ulmer, Stuttgart 1999, ISBN 3-8001-4131-0 .
