PLEASED AS A SUFFOLK PUNCH
Boost for rare breed as proud mother Miri has a foal
AS spring arrives with its promise of renewal, this foal is an especially cheering sight.
For Pheo represents another lease of life for the oldest breed of working horse – the critically endangered Suffolk Punch.
Now three weeks old, he is among only 300 of his kind in the country and is the first Suffolk Punch to be born in Yorkshire for 40 years.
Dating back to the 1500s, their sturdy frame and auburn coats were once a familiar sight ploughing fields or pulling carts. But they began to die out as tractors took over tilling the soil, and by the 1960s they had all but disappeared.
Breeder Sally Bates, 53, said Pheo’s arrival in East Yorkshire was a landmark event for the county. ‘Everyone has been on tenterhooks,’ she said.
It wasn’t easy to get to this point. The mother Miri had to be artificially inseminated and then there was a year’s wait while the mare gestated.
Despite the difficulties – and £7,000 cost of the pregnancy – Mrs Bates is confident Suffolks are back for good, and she hopes to take hers to shows this year to spread the word. ‘We’ve had to prove their worth,’ she added. ‘They are lovely, kind horses.’