The Sudanese Country-Bred is a Sudanese breed of light riding horse. It was bred in the twentieth century by cross-breeding local mares of Barb type with imported Arab or Thoroughbred stallions.
It is one of four recognised horse breeds in Sudan, the others being the Dongola or Dongolawi, the Tawleed and the Western Sudan Pony.
History
The Sudanese Country-Bred was created in the early twentieth century, when a government programme of "improvement" was instituted, under which local mares of Barb type – of the traditional Dongola and Gharbaui (Western Sudan Pony) populations – were put to stallions of Arab and Thoroughbred stock. Some of this breeding was done at the stud farm of Nyala in South Darfur. While the cross-bred animals were larger, they had lost some of the qualities of the local animals, such as hardiness and the ability to go for long periods without water. By the 1950s or 1960s few local horses remained unaffected by this process.
In 1994 the total number of the horses was reported to be . The conservation status of the breed was listed as "not at risk" by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in 2007, and also by the DAD-IS database in 2023.
The Tawleed, a sport horse breed of Khartoum, was developed from the Country-Bred through further cross-breeding with imported stock, principally Thoroughbred.
Characteristics
The coat colour most commonly seen is bay, followed by (in descending order) brown, chestnut, roan, grey and black.
Use
The horses are used for riding.
References Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). List of breeds documented in the Global Databank for Animal Genetic Resources, annex to The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. . Archived 23 June 2020.
Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. .
Breed data sheet: Sudan Country-Bred / Sudan (Horse). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed September 2023.
Élise Rousseau, Yann Le Bris, Teresa Lavender Fagan (2017). Horses of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. .
Farouk Mohamed Elamin, et al. (2007). First Report on: The State of Genetic Resources in Sudan Livestock. Annex to: Barbara Rischkowsky, Dafydd Pilling (editors) (2007). The State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture. Rome: Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. . Archived 10 January 2017.
Martin Haller (2009 ), Der neue Kosmos-Pferdeführer (revised edition, in German). Stuttgart: French-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH. .
Valerie Porter, Ian Lauder Mason (2020). Mason's World Dictionary of Livestock Breeds, Types and Varieties (sixth edition). Wallingford; Boston: CABI. .