Accurate, and interesting information! I'll bet you're right about the stallions vs. the mares too. Unless the horse has a good temper to start and has had good training for ground manners...the boys with the toys can be a bundle...and in this case...a rather LARGE bundle of ooops waiting to explode! Excellent point!
I'm also glad to read that there are more of this breed here in the States. I though there were, but we have so many more Purcherons here in PA...at least locally.
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Originally Posted by pagun  Having owned a Suffolk Punch stallion, I believe I have the answer as to why they are saving the semen and not the eggs. Basically, it is much more difficult to keep a stallion than a mare or a gelding. Horses are beasts of burden and you don't want his nuts driving him nuts and spilling your burdens or possibly killing you every time a lovely lady gallops by. The Suffolk Punch is a great tribute to the horsemen of Suffolk and Norfolk who through selective breeding created the draft horse with the best disposition, best feet, fastest walking gait most ideal for farming, and, they eat only half as much as the other four major breeds of heavy horses. The Suffolk Punch is doing rather well in America, with several times as many head as in England. While the Percheron, Shire, Belgian, and Clydesdale did indeed carry knights, the Suffolk Punch is thought to have been used mainly for pulling wagons and farm implements. It was isolated in its home region by the fens and salt water on three sides and wasn't much exported until the 1930's, and then BOOM- the tractors showed up and these magnificent animals almost went extinct by the 1960's. All the heavy horses seem to have originated in Belgium, and the Suffolk Punch also likely descends from the horses of the Vikings. Don't worry ladies, stallions are not 'in charge' of the herd, the lead mare is, and she is usually an older, wiser one. |