Sunpath Acres - Swedish Ardennais galore!

[Sunpath]

The Swedish Ardennais

Sweden has three breeds of horse considered native to our mother land, one of which is the Swedish Ardennais. The breed was founded in the 1874, when the first Belgian Ardennais mares were imported. These horses were then crossed with native draft breeds to create the Swedish Ardennais, a draft horse smaller and more agile than it’s Belgian ancestors but still strong and sturdy and well suited to survive in the cold climate of the north.
Height ranges from 150-165cm (14.3-16,1hh).
Approved colurs are chestnut with and without flaxen, bay, seal brown and black, with the addition of grey, silver and/or roan. Blazes must not cover either eye and any white must end below the knee/hock area.

Now that I have found a project I actually feel passionate about long term I figured it was time to make my own farm log.

My goal is to breed horses that fit the breed standard of the Swedish Ardennais but without getting that rather strange, somewhat angular appearance that drafts in this game sometimes get. In addition I also want to include all approved colours and dilution combinations in my stock, as well as getting a quite frequent occurrence of blazes. In addition, I also strive to avoid inbreeding and aim for a low COI. I do strive to create new lines by going all the way back to the foundation breeds.

If anyone is interested in starting to breed this rare breed I'll gladly be of any help. I probably will have a couple of mares and stallions to offer for sale.

Swedish Ardennais breed creation:
Swedish Ardennais: Ardennais x North Swedish Horse
Ardennais: Forest Horse x Belgian
North Swedish Horse: Forest Horse x Dole Gudbrandsdal
Dole Gudbrandsdal: [ Arabian x Forest Horse ] x [ Friesian x Thoroughbred ]
Friesian: Forest Horse x [ Arabian x Andalusian ]
Andalusian: [ Sorraia x Carthusian ] x [ Sorraia x West African Barb ]
Carthusian: West African Barb x Sorraia
West African Barb: Arabian x North African Barb ] x [ North African Barb x Forest Horse ]
Sorraia: [ Tarpan x Mongolian ] x [ Tarpan x West African Barb ]
Mongolian: [ Przewalski Horse x Tarpan ] x Tarpan

[Sunpath]

Status report - Line 1

My first line of Swedish Ardennais has been created. In it are some quite nice stallions with plenty of greens and good GP. COI is however very high because I used North Swedish horses bred by other players. For my next attempt, I will dial back further in the recipe and use even more horses from the AC.

Confo wise I feel like this line turned out decently. My stallion Raritet, pictured below for example, has a quite pleasant confo in my opinion, though his convex face is not something that is approved in the breed standard so I will have to try to breed that away.

As for colours, this line has quite a few roans, so I feel like I have that covered in my foundation stock now. There are a couple of blacks as well. What I am lacking is chestnuts, so for Line 2 I am aiming to try to end up with two chestnuts in order to make an all red line. I will also try to get some blazes in that one.

Raritet is by far my favourite stallion in the bunch, despite his convex face:
- Ṩᴬ - Raritet (4)



As for the mares, I was not as lucky with confo, I feel like their hind ends ended up quite small/weak looking, but I feel like Sota did turn out quite ok. But again there is the issue of the convex face:
- Ṩᴬ - Sota (11)



The rest of the stallions of this line can be viewed here: https://www.horseworldonline.net/farm/pasture/201041
The rest of the mares of this line can be viewed here: https://www.horseworldonline.net/horse/profile/4134898

[Sunpath]

Status report - Line 2

This has been one heck of a wild ride. Throughout the whole ordeal that creating this line has been the theme has been that the breed I've needed has been created when the recipe parents has gotten really old. Pretty much every generation has had me worrying that the line would die out before I had gotten to the finish line. Eventually I did however end up with 5 North Swed Horse mares (no stallions) and an Ardennais stallion. Said mares didn't start giving me Swedish Ardennais foals until the Ardennais stallion had gotten quite old though so I had to buy a crossbreed mare that had 4* for Swedish Ardennais and get a Half Ardennais stallion to keep breeding. Only reason I got even 8 out of this bunch of mares is that the mares lived to close to 40 years of age.

So, onwards to the actual results. Out of the 5 mares I only ended up getting 8 Swedish Ardennais, 6 stallions and 2 mares.I swear I did nog get the colt curse throughout the entire process, until at the very end. 1 stallion and 1 mare unfortunately carries cream, but I decided to keep them anyway because the line is so small. I was aiming for lots of face markings as this is very common in the breed. I was also trying to get more red based horses, as my first line only has bays and blacks. I did end up getting 5 red based, including the 2 palominos, but save from one mare having a tiny star I did not get any face markings. COI ranges from 24-88% and HGP from 34-52k. In general I'm not too happy with this line, though I'll keep it for genetic diversity.

Here is my fav. stallion and the only mare with an approved colour...
- Ṩᴬ - Alm ₂₂


- Ṩᴬ - Pensée ₁₅


The rest of this catastrophic line can be found here: https://www.horseworldonline.net/farm/pasture/204593

The goal for next line will be to get silver Into the mix, as well as some bold blazes. I'd also like to achieve a bit more feathering, as well as a straighter face and lower COI.