User:Pitke/Sandbox 2

State-organised breeding
Shortly after the region of Finland had become a Grand Duchy under the Russian Empire in 1809, the last remains of the Swedish state-organised horse breeding ended in 1818, as the Haapaniemi military school was transferred. The interest in horse breeding was not lost though, and throughout the 1830s horse husbandry and horse keeping was discussed and reported in newspapers by gentry farm owners, public servants and enlightened peasants. The most discussed topic was the quality and capacity of the Finnish horse population. In the late 19th century the Finnish horse was widely considered not large and powerful enough for the needs of the reforming agriculture.

In 1835, a relatively minor move towards a new state-controlled horse breeding system was taken, as four provinces were admitted an allowance for purchasing stallions for breeding and for awarding the best of their offspring. The sum admitted was small though, and adequate expertise was not nearly always available for consultation. The allowance was increased a couple of times, and its distribution was changed so that the whole amount was allotted for the use of one governor for a year. A little later orders were given for supplying every province with state-purchased breeding stallions. However, after a couple of decades the progress was lost, with no state stallions in any province, and no allowance for purchasing such.

During the latter half of the 19th century, the rise of the value of wood increased, and the famine years in the 1860s drove Finnish agriculture towards dairy cattle -centred production, with increasing demands for crop yield per cultivated area; large numbers of horses were required to provide for the needs of this growth, and improvement in the quality of horses was desired. Selling of wood, and later also of dairy products, provided money, bringing more possibilities to horse breeding. However, the famine had greatly impaired the horse population: the weakest individuals had naturally been slaughtered, but more importantly, it had often been necessary to sell the most valuable animals to afford food. Russian merchants would buy these horses, and especially stallions were lost in large numbers; for the following years, breeding mostly rested on unselected colts.

I was in the 1860 when the first considerable measures for improving the Finnish horse were taken. The Russian government commissioned a Swedish professor of veterinary medicine, G. W. Sjöstedt, to investigate the state of Finnish horse breeding, and to create a plan to improve it. In his 1863 report, Sjöstedt moderately commends the Finnish horse, and suggests two main actions to be the base of the new state breeding program: obtaining up-to-standard breeding stallions, and organising races. However, the quality of the horse population had been reduced so much that in the 1870 experts found it hard to find any passable breeding material at all.

In this situation, inspired by the lift in dairy production supported by successful breed imports, outside influence was once again considered. Especially the Norfolk Trotter was regarded an interesting possibility, even ideal, for the needs of the Finnish horse. As an experiment, some stallions and pregnant mares of the breed were imported, and at first the results were promising: many of the crossbreds had attractive conformation, and often such animals would clear the table at horse shows. Later on the experiment appeared to have failed however; in further generations, faults in character and conformation were accentuated. The enthusiasm about Norfolk Trotters died, and the breed's influence in the Finnish horse never became significant. Ardennes horses were imported to large farms in southern Finland far into the 1930s, but like the Norfolk Trotter experiment and many similar episodes, the breed disappeared without creating prominent lines.

Crown stallion system
In 1869, the Senate of Finland sent orders for the provinces of Vaasa, Häme and Kuopio to obtain suitable breeding material. A little later, allowances were assigned for this purpose, and detailed instructions were given for picking four stallions for each of the eight provinces. Finland was subdivided into one hundred breeding districts (ruununoripiiri), and each district was to have one state stallion. Most years, some breeding districts lacked a stallion though; this was mainly because of the scarcity of good quality horses available. The stallions purchased and used per this program came to be called "crown stallions" (ruununori, ruununoriit), and this originally demotic term later obtained an official status. The abbreviation "ro" became the official marker of crown stallions and a part of their names; animals with the same name were distinguished by their breeding districts; for example, one Poke was "Poke ro Urjala", and his son Poke was "Poke ro Ylihärmä".