Gourt Home::Gourt :: Finnish horse
The Finnish Horse, also know as Finnhorse or Finnish Universal (in finnish : "Suomenhevonen", petname "Suokki"), is a horse breed originating from Finland.
The earliest signs of this horse are dated back to the Bronze Age, and its known history is about a thousand years old. It has played an important part in all the events of the Finnish history, being used for various purposes in the army and as a workhorse, as well as a trotting and riding horse. Nowadays the main trend of using the Finnhorse is trotting. However, it is becoming more and more popular in other types of horse sports and hobbies, too. They are coldblooded horses (warmblooded according to English categorization).The Finnhorse is about 156 cm high on the average and of a rather solid build. The most common colour is chestnut, and the hair is thick. It has a reliable and alert character. The Studbook was opened in 1907. They are multipurpose horses used for both harness racing and riding.
Nowadays there are about 19 000 Finnhorses, the most of which are trotters. The number of riding horses is about 2000, and the number of working horses about 1000. The Finnhorse is not only the most many-sided horse breed in the world, but also one of the fastest coldblood breeds. The Finnish record 1.19,9a is held by the stallion Viesker.
The animal's reliability was alluded to by San Jose Sharks' radio broadcaster Dan Rusanowsky during the Sharks' successful capturing of a Stanley Cup playoff berth in the 2005-2006 National Hockey League season. The Sharks' primary goaltender, Evgeni Nabokov, had taken a secondary role to the phenomenal winning streak of backup goalie Vesa Toskala, who hails from Tampere, Finland. Between early February 2006 and the Sharks' victory on April 12 against the Vancouver Canucks, which secured his team's appearance in the playoffs that season, Toskala posted a remarkable 17 wins, two regulation losses and two overtime losses. During this period, Rusanowsky mentioned in several broadcasts that the Sharks were "riding the Finnish horse" (to a playoff spot).
More information and pictures:
"Finnish horse"