Belarusian Harness Horse
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| Country of origin | Belarus |
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The Belarus Harness Horse, Belarusian: Беларускі запражны конь, 'Bielaruski zapražny koń', is a Belarusian breed of draught horse. It was bred for use in agriculture, and is also used to produce mare's milk and horsemeat.[5]: 443 [6]: 226
History
[edit]The Belorusskaya was bred in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, principally in the western part of what is now Belarus,[6]: 226 which was for much of the twentieth century the Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic. The aim was to create an agricultural draught horse adapted to local conditions, capable of working on sandy, swampy or woodland terrain.[4]: 321 Local mares, many of them of Polesian type, were put to imported stallions. The majority of these were of the Norwegian Dølehest draught breed, but there was also some Ardennes and Brabant influence.[5]: 443 By the 1980s the breeding programme was close to completion;[4]: 273 two volumes of the stud-book had been issued, in which 616 mares and 135 stallions were recorded.[4]: 321
In 1980 the total breed population was some 93000, of which almost 28000 were pure-bred.[4]: 321
The breed was officially recognised in Belarus in 2000.[6]: 226
Characteristics
[edit]The Belarus Harness Horse usually stands between 148 and 157 cm at the withers.[5]: 443 The average height for mares is about 150 cm, and for stallions and geldings is about 3 cm more; average body weights are 495 kg and 540 kg respectively.[2] The coat may be of any of the usual dark colours; striped dun and yellow also occur.[5]: 443
Use
[edit]The Belarus Harness Horse was initially bred for use in agriculture; it is also used to produce mare's milk and horsemeat.[5]: 443 [6]: 226 The milk yield is approximately 9 kg per day, but may exceed 2500 kg in a lactation of 180 days.[5]: 443
References
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- ^ Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to: The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Archived 23 June 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f Breed data sheet: Belorusskaya / Belarus (Horse). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed March 2020.
- ^ Valerie Porter, Ian Lauder Mason (2002). Mason's World Dictionary of Livestock Breeds, Types, and Varieties (fifth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 085199430X.
- ^ a b c d e N.G. Dmitriev, L.K. Ernst (1989). Animal genetic resources of the USSR. FAO animal production and health paper 65. Rome: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9251025827. Archived 13 November 2009. Also available here, archived 29 September 2017.
- ^ a b c d e f Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.
- ^ a b c d Élise Rousseau, Yann Le Bris, Teresa Lavender Fagan (2017). Horses of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691167206.