Byelorussian Harness Horse

The Belarus Harness Horse, Belarusian: Беларускі запражны конь, romanizedBielaruski 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 

Belarus Harness Horse
Brood mare named Astra (2021)
Conservation status
Other names
  • Belarusian: Беларускі запражны конь
  • Belarusian: Bielaruski zapražny koń
  • Belorusskaya
  • Belorusskaya upryazhnaya
  • Byelorussian Carriage Horse
  • Byelorussian Coach Horse
  • Byelorussian Draught Horse
  • Byelorussian Harness Horse
  • White Russian Carriage Horse
  • White Russian Coach Horse
  • White Russian Draught Horse
  • White Russian Harness Horse[3]: 168 
Country of originBelarus
Distribution
  • Belarus
  • Russian Federation
Use
Traits
Weight
  • Male:
    average: 540 kg[2]
  • Female:
    average: 495 kg[2]
Height
  • Male:
    average: 153 cm[2]
  • Female:
    average: 150 cm[2]
Colour

History

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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

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References

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  1. ^ Barbara Rischkowsky, D. Pilling (eds.) (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: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. ISBN 9789251057629. Accessed January 2017.
  2. ^ a b c d e Breed data sheet: Belorusskaya / Belarus (Horse). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed March 2020.
  3. ^ Valerie Porter, Ian Lauder Mason (2002). Mason's World Dictionary of Livestock Breeds, Types, and Varieties (fifth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 085199430X.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ a b 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.
  6. ^ a b c Élise Rousseau, Yann Le Bris, Teresa Lavender Fagan (2017). Horses of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691167206.