The Suffolk Punch

The Suffolk Punch is probably the oldest breed of working horse in the world to exist in a form which we can recognise today. It has the longest written pedigree of any such breed, as every Suffolk can be traced back to a stallion known as Crisp's Horse of Ufford foaled in 1768.

The breed was confined to the Eastern Counties and only started to become popular in the rest of Great Britain at the end of the working horse era. Mechanisation was rapid on East Anglian farms, stimulated by the drive for food production in the Second World war and the breed declined drastically in numbers so that by the late fifties there were only five breeders of any size, one of them being the Home Office with their Colony Stud at Hollesley Bay, near Woodbridge.

The breed is unique in a number of ways especially in its chestnut colour. It has a very strong association with the people of East Anglia as the Suffolk would have touched the lives of most of them to a greater or lesser extent. Today, when the breed is very rare, the Suffolk Punch is still recognised as an icon for the County and as a most important feature of our countryside heritage.