The Suffolk Horse, also historically known as the Suffolk Punch or Suffolk Sorrel, is an English breed of draught horse. The first part of the name derives from the county of Suffolk in East Anglia, and the word "punch" is an old English word for a short stout person. It is a heavy draught horse which is always chestnut in colour. Suffolk Punches are known as good doers, and tend to have energetic gaits.
The breed was developed in the early 16th century, and remains similar in phenotype to its founding stock. The Suffolk Punch was developed for farm work, and gained popularity during the early 20th century. However, as agriculture became increasingly mechanised, the breed fell out of favour, particularly from the middle part of the century, and almost disappeared completely. The breed's status is listed as critical by the UK Rare Breeds Survival Trust and The Livestock Conservancy. The breed pulled artillery and non-motorised commercial vans and buses, as well as being used for farm work. It was also exported to other countries to upgrade local equine stock. Today, they are used for draught work, logging and advertising.
Suffolk Punches generally stand 165 to 178 centimetres (16.1 to 17.2 h), weigh 900 to 1000 kilograms (2000 to 2200 lb), and are always chestnut in colour. The traditional spelling, still used by the Suffolk Horse Society, is "chesnut" (with no "t" in the middle of the word).Horses of the breed come in many different shades of chestnut. Equestrian author Marguerite Henry described the breed by saying, "His color is bright chestnut – like a tongue of fire against black field furrows, against green corn blades, against yellow wheat, against blue horizons. Never is he any other color."
The Suffolk Punch tends to be shorter but more massively built than other British heavy draught breeds, such as the Clydesdale or the Shire, as a result of having been developed for agricultural work rather than road haulage. The breed has a powerful, arching neck; well-muscled, sloping shoulders; a short, wide back; and a muscular, broad croup. Legs are short and strong, with broad joints; sound, well-formed hooves; and little or no feathering on the fetlocks. ] The movement of the Suffolk Punch is said to be energetic, especially at the trot. The breed tends to mature early and be long-lived, and is economical to keep, needing less feed than other horses of similar type and size.
The Suffolk Punch registry is the oldest English breed society. The first known mention of the Suffolk Punch is in William Camden's Britannia, published in 1586, in which he describes a working horse of the eastern counties of England that is easily recognisable as the Suffolk Punch. This description makes them the oldest breed of horse that is recognisable in the same form today.
A detailed genetic study shows that the Suffolk Punch is closely genetically grouped not only with the Fell and Dales British ponies, but also with the European Haflinger. They were developed in Norfolk and Suffolk in the east of England, a relatively isolated area. The local farmers developed the Suffolk Punch for farm work, for which they needed a horse with power, stamina, health, longevity, and docility, and they bred the Suffolk to comply with these needs. Because the farmers used these horses on their land, they seldom had any to sell, which helped to keep the bloodlines pure and unchanged.
By the time of the First World War, the Suffolk Punch had become a popular workhorse on large farms in East Anglia due to its good temperament and excellent work ethic. It remained popular until the Second World War, when a combination of the need for increased wartime food production (which resulted in many horses being sent to the slaughterhouse), and increased farm mechanisation which followed the war-decimated population numbers.. Only nine foals were registered with the Suffolk Horse Society in 1966, but a revival of interest in the breed has occurred since the late 1960s, and numbers have risen continuously.
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