, 1890 The ancestors of the modern Finnhorse were important throughout Finnish history, used as
work horses and beasts of burden in every aspect of life from antiquity well into the 20th century. The modern breed's precise line of descent is unclear, but numerous outside influences have been recorded throughout the history of Finland. Linguistic analysis suggest that horse was in use in Finland in the
bronze age, but the earliest archaeological evidence of horses existing in what today is Finland dates to the
Finnish Middle Iron Age (400–800 CE). The Finnhorse and its progenitors later became an indispensable asset for military forces from the region of Finland during the times of
Swedish and
Russian rule, and since
independence as well. In addition to functionality as military and working horses, the Finnhorse has also been bred for speed in harness racing, and it can be argued that this sport was the main factor in the survival of the breed after its numbers crashed during the later half of the 20th century, from approximately 400,000 animals in the 1950s to 14,000 in the 1980s. In the 21st century, the numbers of the breed have stabilised at approximately 20,000 animals.
Early history Although multiple hypotheses exist on the origins of the horse in Finland, an indigenous
wild horse origin is thought improbable, as significant numbers of
domesticated horses were imported from earliest times.
Ludvig Fabritius considered the proposed prototype a side branch of a "
Tartarian" breed, and considered it possible that the same prototype also influenced Estonian, Swedish and Norwegian horse populations. , photographed in 1909. high. , photographed in 1910. high. Later,
agronomist Axel Alfthan (1862–1934) The stud had a few stallions described as "
Arabian" and "
Andalusian". For about 30 years, these stallions influenced the local horse population outside the military school as well, and a number of writings from the 19th century mention a "Haapaniemi breed". Similar if smaller crossbreeding programs developed elsewhere; at
Tavinsalmen kartano, the royal estate (
kungsgård) of
Tavinsalmi, at least one of the mares had been imported from Sweden. Russian
Orlov trotters and
Don horses also influenced the Finnhorse population in the first half the 19th century, improving its size, ridability and refinement. The horse type originating in
Northern Savonia known as the "Fürstenbergian breed," bred by the engineer Fürstenberg at the beginning of the 19th century, was a crossbreed between the Finnish horses and Orlov trotters. The influence of
Don horses was seen as late as in the 1920s and 1930s among the black and bay horses used by the Finnish cavalry – the
dragoons of Nyland had two full
squadrons of these colours. In addition to the needs of the military, crossbreeding was used to improve the common working horse; improved roads and advances in agriculture had replaced the previously predominant
oxen with the horse, and more horses of better quality were needed for transport and agricultural work. Attempts to create better working horses used many breeds, including
Percherons and a heavy Norwegian breed;
Ardennes horses were favoured in
Southern Ostrobothnia and
Southern Finland. In
Southern Savonia a multitude of breeds were used. The amount and diversity of crossbreeding led to difficulties in creating a consistent type up until the beginning of the 20th century and the creation of the Finnhorse studbook; some of the first stallions accepted in the studbook were criticised for having a "Norwegian" look. Other intentional crossbreeding experiments included the bloodstock of Sarkkila and Hali in
Northern Karelia, descended from crosses with Russian military horses. The breeding programme of Sarkkila stated one of the stallions to be of "Fürstenbergian breed", and one of the mares of "
oriental" descent. The "Hali breed", descending from the stallions of Sarkkila, was an important influence in the pedigree of a few notable Finnhorse trotter sires such as Eino 680 and his son Eino-Vakaa 25. Some estates, especially in southern regions of Finland, were known to have used stallions of several light and hot-blooded breeds; for example, an officer in
Pernå bred
Arabians. These crossbreeds were probably an attempt to create showy driving horses. A notable failing of a crossbreeding attempt happened in 1875, when a stud was founded in
Porvoo to import and export
Norfolk Trotters, a breed that has had important influence in several driving horse breeds, including the
Standardbred. The crossbred offspring were praised for their looks, but turned out to have poor temperaments and no talent for speed. Due to a combination of the large population of horses in Finland (over 200,000 animals) and the later enthusiasm for purebreeding, these estate-based crossbreeding attempts never had significant influence on the modern Finnish horse. An especially detailed description of the best Finnish horses of the mid-19th century is available due to the development of the
Tori horse in Estonia. Three experts were consulted about the Finnish horse in order to ascertain its value for the project. According to the stud farm inspector of the Russian Empire, Mayendorff, Finnish horses were found in four types: the "Haapaniemi type", the "Fürstenbergian type", an "
Orlov type", and a "Karelian type". A Finnish
academic master, A. Elving, considered Finnish horses most purebred in Karelia, and mixed elsewhere, especially in
Southwest Finland, where Swedish, North-German and even English horses had been crossed with Finnish ones, while in Karelia and Savonia the outside influence had been mainly Russian. Swedish count Carl Gustav Wrangler, a respected
hippologist of the time, mentioned in his report that Finns were then importing
Norfolk Trotters for crossbreeding purposes. Documents created some years after a number of Finnish horses had been imported to the Tori stud describe the Finnish mares obtained. Their average height was , and the colour was typically dark with a
star. Their heads were large and necks short but well-carried; their bodies sturdy and proportionate with muscular
withers, deep chest and muscular back; the loins were on the long side, and the haunches muscular if sloping. The leg joints were well-defined, the
pasterns short and the
feet tough. However, records also noted that the legs had "serious faults of position," not further defined. The Finnish horses also were considered calm and good workers, and swift walkers and runners.
Decline In the 18th century, the horse population of Finland vastly diminished in both numbers and quality. At the beginning of the century, during the
Great Northern War campaigns of
Charles XII, the Finnish cavalry was larger than at any other time in history, and almost every usable horse of Finland was needed. Horses were used by the cavalry, infantry, and for transporting supplies. Horses serving in the Swedish military never returned to Finland; even the animals provided to the last remaining Swedish reinforcement regiments were taken to Sweden in 1714, and to Norway in 1718. The
Russian invasion and occupation caused additional hardships. By the end of Russian occupation in 1721, a third of the Finnish human populace as well as large numbers of horses were lost to war and epidemic diseases. Furthermore, a great number of horses were exported to Russia during the invasion at the command of
Peter I. Horses removed from Finland ended up mainly in the area of
Vyatka government, and some Russian researchers such as Simanov and Moerder have suggested that the
Vyatka horse was developed mainly from Estonian and Finnish bloodlines. In addition to the hardships of war and occupation, the treaties of
Nystad in 1721 and
Åbo in 1743 ceded Finnish territory to Russia, which resulted in much of the Finnish horse population being left behind the new borders. The Finnish horses in these now-Russian areas were crossbred with the Russian horses in significant numbers. With the Russians having taken the best animals, combined with the old custom of pastures shared by municipalities or larger areas, rebuilding the horse population took decades. To increase numbers, horses were often bred too young, and
inbreeding also occurred. By 1761, one of the first researchers in the agricultural chemistry in Finland described the Finnish horse population of the time: at full speed, c. 1890 According to ethnologist Kustaa Vilkuna's estimations, calculated from measurements of
horse collars used in Finland in the early 18th century, the average peasant's horse was about tall, while some horses employed by manors were larger, sometimes more than tall. Vilkuna also discovered that the horses of the southern and western regions of Finland were larger than those of the northern and eastern regions. This was probably due to the influence of imported horses. By the mid-18th century, a typical Finnish horse was probably about , about the same size as a small contemporary Finnhorse
yearling, and weighed about , roughly half the weight of a contemporary working section horse. A civilian horse of good quality had good action and was swift. However,
leg faults were common. In response to the decline of the Finnish horse population and especially the great loss of good quality breeding animals experienced during the
great famine of 1866–1868, the
Senate of Finland gave orders for three
provinces to obtain quality stallions for public use. The scope of the programme was later expanded to include eight provinces, and Finland was divided into breeding districts, which were all to have a state-owned stallion available to service local mares. The horses in
this programme became known as "crown stallions" (). Official guidelines for the selection of stallions were never given, but one common aim throughout Finland was to increase the size and bulk of the horse population to create a type better suited for agricultural work.
Purebreeding and revival mix. By the end of the 18th century, crossbreeding of Finnish horses began to be described, especially by military leaders, as "detrimental crossbreeding"—damaging to the quality of the Finnish horse, particularly for military use. In the beginning of the 19th century, German historian
Friedrich Rühs especially blamed the west coast estates for damaging the Finnish horse by crossbreeding. Nonetheless, outside stallions were still imported to Finland. At the end of the century, stallions "of oriental, Arabian blood" still served at state farms. The influence of the Russian-imported "oriental"
Turkish and Caucasian horses, as well as "Fürstenbergian" horses was also noted.
Orlov Trotters were used in
Savonia and
Karelia, and Norwegian stallions were brought to northern
Ostrobothnia. Light riding horses were imported from Russian and Central Europe. Conversely, heavier horses such as the
Norfolk Trotter and
Ardennes were imported to southern Finland as late as 1870. As
Finnish nationalism arose and increased in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, crossbreeding of the Finnish horse essentially ended and a new direction was taken by Finnish horse breeders. The breed was considered a symbol of the nation, and thus it was desired that it be as purebred as possible. On 20 November 1894, Finland's first horse breeding association
Hevoskasvatusyhdistys Hippos (now
Suomen Hippos) was founded to breed and improve the Finnish horse by the means of purebreeding, and in 1905, a governmental decree was issued for horse breeding associations to be founded throughout the country, leading to the establishment of the Finnhorse stud book in 1907. At first the only notable objectives of the Finnhorse breeding programme concerned appearance, especially the colour, of the breed. The aim was to remove "foreign" characteristics. Later, in the 1920s, trials of performance were introduced, and since then, the main objectives of the Finnhorse breeding programme have continued to encourage improvements in the capacity, movement, conformation and character of the breed. Since the establishment of the Finnhorse stud book it has been
closed and the breed has been bred
pure. While accidental and even intentional Finnhorse crossbreds exist, they are not accepted for the Finnhorse registry and have not been used to develop new breeds within Finland. The Finnhorse stud book remains in the control of
Suomen Hippos.
Impact of World War II Horses were a central asset to Finnish military forces during the
Winter War (1939–1940) and
Continuation War (1941–1944), when tens of thousands of horses were the main locomotive power of the army due to the shortage of automobiles. Animals were procured from private owners in a systematic procedure, but to ensure the continuity of Finnhorse breeding, neither
stallions nor any nursing, pregnant or studbook-approved mares were enrolled to be eligible for military procurement. All procured horses officially remained their private owners' property, were marked for identification and as necessary, were returned or reported dead. The program was successful in preserving the breed, as the horse population rebounded to its pre-war count of over 380,000 animals as soon as 1945. The great number of Russian horses captured as
matériel during wartime became a threat to the Finnhorse's purebreeding: many Russian animals were stallions, and there was no way to ensure new owners would not crossbreed them with Finnhorses. For practical and political reasons, Soviet Russia would not accept these horses back as a part of Finland's massive war indemnity. Finnhorses however, were accepted as payment, and a total of 18,000 animals were sold to Soviet Russia at low rates in 1947 and 1948. The best Finnhorses were not offered to the Soviets, however, and according to contemporary witnesses, many showy but otherwise useless horses ended up in Russia.
Post-war decline '', first horse in Finland to earn over one million
Marks, was one of the harness racing stars that became a popular hero during the hard decline of the Finnhorse. Approximately 300,000 horses existed in Finland when the Finnhorse studbook was established in the beginning of the 20th century. The horse population, consisting almost entirely of Finnhorses, remained stable for 50 years. The rebuilding of the country after two wars had increased demand for horse power, and by the 1950s, the breed reached its all-time peak, with an estimated 409,000 animals, with a great majority of the horses being of the draught type. However, with the increased mechanisation of agriculture and forestry in the 1960s, the number of Finnhorses dropped precipitously. Horses, having been bred in large numbers only a few years earlier, were taken to
slaughter by the thousands; a change in forestry tax policy made previously state-supported horse-powered forestry unprofitable and further discouraged keeping horses. Many working horse bloodlines ended, while lines more suitable for sports and recreation survived. By the 1970s, the breed's numbers had declined to 90,000 animals, and 10 years later as few as 20,000 Finnhorses existed. The breed's all-time lowest point was 1987, with only 14,100 horses. By this time, however, the overall horse population in Finland had been increasing for almost a decade, with lighter harness racing horse breeds establishing their position, counting 12,800 animals the same year. Although other breeds were being increasingly imported and bred, the numbers of the Finnhorse population also slowly began to recover; in 1997, 19,000 Finnhorses existed. Harness racing and associated
parimutuel betting, and to some degree also the relatively new hobby of riding, became the most important factors ensuring the survival of the breed.
21st century Nearly all Finnish horses
foaled since 1971 have been registered. During the first decade of the 21st century, the breed's numbers in Finland stabilised at roughly 20,000, and approximately 1,000 foals are born annually. The breed makes up roughly one third of Finland's total horse population. The objective for ensuring the breed's continuity is to have at least 200 stallions and 2,000 mares used for breeding every year, 3,000 horses used for harness racing, and 6,000 horses for riding and other uses. In the 21st century, most Finnhorses are bred to be trotters, but the breed is also popular at riding schools and for
recreational riding. The Finnhorse is a relatively unknown horse breed outside of Finland, with no organised efforts to promote it internationally. The word "Finnhorse" was only recently coined, and only became the standard name after 1990. However, a few Finnhorses exist outside Finland, having been exported in small numbers to nations such as Germany and Sweden. As part of an equestrian exchange project carried out in the 1980s, a number of Finnhorses were sold to Austria and Germany in 1985 and 1987. In Germany, the horses were used as
foundation bloodstock for the Freund stud, which went on to breed dozens of Finnhorses, selling them in Germany and Austria. A number of horses were also exported to the Netherlands. The German Finnhorse population remains the most notable one outside Finland, with 150 animals. Apart from the exchange project of the late 1980s, activity to export the Finnhorse has been minimal. However, a 2008 study stated that increased international interest and demand for the Finnhorse was advisable to ensure the survival of the breed. To this end, the objectives of the national breeding program, as of 2008, include increasing international recognition of the Finnhorse and generating demand for the breed for recreation and lower-level equestrian education; to make it the standard breed used in Finland for
equestrian tourism; and to improve the opportunities for Finnhorse trotters to participate in Swedish and Norwegian heats. Within Finland, the Finnhorse is valued as the national horse breed with cultural ties and strong support from a variety of Finnhorse organisations. On the other hand, progress in popularizing the breed internationally is complicated by its low population and lack of international recognition. The strengths of the breed in international disciplines are considered to be its good health and working qualities, its versatility, and its novelty value outside of Finland. The versatility of the breed's "universal" horse type, a Finnish concept, has plusses and minuses: It creates a challenge in marketing because buyers tend to seek conventional
horse types, and as a result it lacks a strong advantage over specialized breeds. Yet, the versatility of the Finnhorse can also be an advantage; more specialised breeds may be limited to a smaller range of activities. ==Influence on other horse breeds==