Horses - Large Žemaitukai

  The breed of Large Žemaitukai horses started evolving at the end of the XIX c., when small Žemaitukai horses could no longer meet the farming needs. At that time Žemaitukai were crossed with trotter (mostly Orlov breed) stallions or stallion hybrids of these breeds in the north-eastern part of Lithuania, while in south-eastern part of the country Žemaitukai were crossbred with northern Swedish stallions or stallion hybrids. Such crossbreeding followed by inside breeding led to the creation of a much larger and stronger local horse called, together with an old type Žemaitukas, a local horse. Later, around the year 1946, this type of horses was separated from Žemaitukai, and called Eastern Lithuanian driving horses. In 1949 the latter breed together with Žemaitukai was given the joint name of Žemaičiai (Samogitian) breed, with two types: the old and the large. In 1985 the Žemaičiai breed was called Large Žemaitukai. In 1963-1965 stallions from northern Sweden were brought in to improve the Large Žemaitukai horses. Colours of the latter range from yellowish to dark bay or black. The Large Žemaitukai were bred by the linear breeding method; consolidation of this type of horses was not fully completed.

  The Large Žemaitukai started appearing in herd books in 1948 as a local horse breed. The first state herd book on Žemaičiai horse breed was published in 1959, and was being issued up to 1996. Since 2001, the large Žemaitukai herd books have been handled by the Lithuanian Horse Breeders Association. As there is no unified identification system for Large Žemaitukai horses at the moment, thoroughbred horses are identified according to their colour and markings. These horses are used for farming and driving. In Lithuania labour horses were first tested for strength in 1857. The training and capacity testing of large Žemaitukai following unified methods were performed during the period of 1954-1985. Since 2002 the Lithuanian Horse Breeders Association has been responsible for the above testing.

  Since 1990 the population of thoroughbred Large Žemaitukai horses has been decreasing in a major way, and now has come close to extinction.