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New Research on the Faroese Horse

Date: 2022.08.05

Text: Maria Kjetså, Senior Scientist, NordGen Farm Animals

The Faroese horse is a small and hardy horse breed. Unfortunately, the breed was almost completely extinct in the 1960s, and today the breed is considered critically endangered. NordGen has for many years worked to help the breed association Felagið Føroysk Ross to take care of the unique breed and recently a study that analyzes the pedigrees and finds opportunities for conservation of the breed has been published in the scientific journal “Genetic Resources”. Research like this is very important for further work to preserve the breed.

Historically, the Faroese horse was used to carry things on their backs and was not used as a riding or driving horse as there were no usable roads for this in the Faroe Islands in older days. The horses lived freely on the islands and were only brought in when they were needed. The Faroese horse developed an incredibly good temperament and is known to be very friendly.

Figure 1. The pedigree of the few horses that were still around in the 1960s (green are the horses that were alive, and from which all today’s Faroese horses originate). Image: Kettunen et al. 2022

In the 1960s, there were only 5 horses left of the Faroese horse. 1 stallion and 4 mares (See Figure 1). All of today’s Faroese horses originate from these 5 horses. In the study, there were 197 horses born from 1917-2016. 87 males and 91 females. At the time the study was carried out (2016), there were 66 horses alive. Since then, several foals have been born and today there are between 90 and 100 living horses of the breed.

The study shows that the Faroese horse has a high average kinship in the breed and a low effective population size, which is in line with what we know about the breed’s history. The study recommends optimizing breeding animals so that there is the least possible increase in inbreeding for the next generation. You can calculate which animals are favorable to use with, for example, the Eva tool. Other important measures to help the breed will be to increase interest in the horse, for example via tourism. It is also important to be able to characterize the breed in terms of size, colour, temperament and appearance, but also through the use of DNA, for example, to be able to distinguish the kinship of the animals in a more detailed way.

Image: Maria Kjetså

One of the most important measures that can be taken is to increase the number of horses in the population so that close inbreeding can be avoided. One challenge with increasing the population is also that there is currently a lack of demand for the horse on the Faroe Islands. There has been some demand for the breed abroad, but due to a lack of legislation, it is unfortunately not possible to export horses born in the Faroe Islands abroad as of today. Horses born abroad, on the other hand, can get an EU passport and thus both travel to and from the Faroe Islands. This is something the breed association has worked on, and they have put pressure on the politicians in the Faroe Islands with a signature campaign. Hopefully, this will eventually provide opportunities to export horses born in the Faroe Islands, but it is a task that may take several years.

The Faroese horse is an important part of the Faroese cultural heritage and is certainly a breed that should exist for the future in living life, and not just in the history books. It is therefore important that we work as best we can to help the breed survive. You can read more about the Faroese horse here.