The Dorset Horn originated in
Dorset in south-west England. Like the extinct
Pink-nosed Somerset, to which it is related, it probably derived from
cross-breeding of
Merinos imported from Spain with local tan-faced sheep similar to the modern
Portland. Unlike many British
lowland breeds, Dorset sheep were not influenced by cross-breeding with the
Leicester or
Southdown breeds which were much used for this purpose in the latter eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. A
breeders' society, the Dorset Horn Sheep Breeders' Association, was set up in 1891 and the first
flock book was published in the following year. The Dorset Horn was exported to many countries, among them Australia, South Africa and the United States, where the first arrivals were in the 1860s, and where substantial numbers were imported from about 1880. The Dorset Horn reached Australia in 1895, and New Zealand in 1897. In 2023 it was reported to
DAD-IS by twenty countries in Africa, the Americas, Asia, Europe and Oceania; the largest population reported was that of Denmark, where there were head. A
polled variant of the breed, the
Poll Dorset, was
bred in Australia through cross-breeding with the hornless
Corriedale and
Ryeland breeds. From about 1950, this was introduced to the United Kingdom, where it rapidly supplanted the horned variant; the breed association changed its name in 1981 to the Dorset Horn and Poll Dorset Sheep Breeder's Association, and registers both breeds. A different polled variant of the breed arose in the United States, derived from a polled
sport in a flock kept by
North Carolina State University. This Polled Dorset was registered with the breed association – the Continental Dorset Club – from 1956; as elsewhere, it soon became more widespread than the original horned type. The world-wide
conservation status of the Dorset Horn was listed by the
FAO as "not at risk" in 2007. At country level, it is listed as "vulnerable" by the
Rare Breeds Trust of Australia, as "priority" by the
Rare Breeds Conservation Society of New Zealand, and as "threatened" by the
Livestock Conservancy in the USA. In the United Kingdom, where in the 1980s there were more than breeding
ewes, its status is listed by the
Rare Breeds Survival Trust as "at risk", meaning that the total number is between 900 and 1500 head. The Dorset Horn has contributed to the development of several other breeds: the
Dorper and
Dormer breeds of South Africa, through
cross-breeding with the
Blackhead Persian and
Merinos respectively; and the
British Milksheep and
Cadzow Improver in the United Kingdom. ==Characteristics==