| When you hear the phrase Suffolk Punch you | | | | feed than other horses of the same size and |
| may think it's a new cocktail, or street fighting | | | | type. The breed used to have small, bad hooves |
| technique or perhaps a UK football team. You'd be | | | | but careful breeding and removed that problem. |
| wrong though, as the Suffolk Punch is a breed of | | | | The Suffolk Punch registry is the oldest English |
| draft horse from England specifically Suffolk | | | | breed society and the breed was first mentioned |
| county in East Anglia. This draft horse is always | | | | in 1586 in William Camden's Britannia. It is the |
| chestnut and they have very energetic gaits. This | | | | oldest breed still recognizable in the same form |
| breed was developed in the early sixteenth | | | | today. The foundation sire was only 15 hands tall |
| century for farm work but gained popularity in | | | | and foaled in 1768. At the time this breed was |
| the early twentieth century. As farm work | | | | known as the Suffolk Sorrel. By the 1760s all |
| became mechanized and use of draft horses | | | | other male lines had died out resulting in a genetic |
| stopped, the breed almost disappeared. The | | | | bottleneck. During the breed's development the |
| Suffolk Punch breed is listed as critical in the UK's | | | | breed was influenced by the Norfolk Trotter, |
| Rare Breed Survival Trust and the American | | | | Norfolk Cob and the Thoroughbred. |
| Livestock Breeds Conservancy. | | | | The uniform chestnut color comes from a trotting |
| The Suffolk Punch stands 16 to 17 hands and | | | | stallion named Blakes Farmer. Other breeds were |
| weighs two tons. The color is chestnut but | | | | crossbred to increase the size and stature of the |
| breeders in the United Kingdom use different | | | | Suffolk Punch but they did not have a lasting |
| terms for the particular shade such as dark liver, | | | | influence. The breed remains today very close to |
| dull dark, red and bright. White markings are rare | | | | what it was before any crossbreeding. The |
| but are limited to the face and lower legs if they | | | | Suffolk Horse Society was formed in 1877 to |
| appear. This breed is shorter than other British | | | | promote the breed and published the first stuff |
| draft horses but are more massively built than | | | | book in 1880. The first exports of the breed |
| the Shire or Clydesdale. They have a powerful | | | | were to Canada in 1865. In 1880 the first Suffolk |
| arching neck, well muscled sloping shoulders, short | | | | Punch were exported to the United States. The |
| wide back, short and strong legs, broad joints, | | | | American Suffolk Horse Association was |
| and little or no feathering on the fetlocks. They | | | | established in 1907. |
| mature early, are long lived and actually need less | | | | |