Prince Charles helps to save rare breeds

Prince Charles has made a donation to the Equine Gene Bank appeal, which was launched by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) of which His Royal Highness is patron.

Facing a crisis

The donation was announced at a reception hosted by the Prince of Wales at Highgrove House for theHackneyHorseSociety (HHS). The Prince is a great supporter of the Hackney breed and is a patron of the society.

“It was when we explained to His Royal Highness that we are facing a crisis in the decline in the numbers of pure-bred registered Hackneys, and the steps being taken by ourselves and RBST to ensure that all of the UK’s native breeds will survive into the future, that he made this most wonderful donation,” said a Roger Bass, chairman of the HHS.

The project aims to ensure the conservation of all British native breeds ofhorsesand ponies.TheHackney, Cleveland Bay and Suffolk and Eriskay pony are in the ‘critical’ category on the RBST watchlist, each with fewer than 300 registered breeding females.

Other breeds on the watchlist are Dales, Exmoor,Dartmoor, Fell, Highland and New Forest ponies as well as Clydesdale and Shirehorses.

Preserving genetics

“As a national charity, we cannot ethically encourage widespread breeding which could add to the over-population, but we must find a way of ensuring that important genetics survive for the future,” said RBST CEO Tom Beeston. “We can do that by preserving these genetics, in the form of frozen semen, in our gene bank.”

The gene bank currently contains semen from approximately 50 stallions representing 12 breeds. RBST hopes to increase this over the next decade, to at least 25 stallions from each breed on its watchlist. The stallions must be as unrelated as possible, to ensure a spread of genetic diversity.

The cost of collection per stallion is around £5,000, soRBST relies on the generosity of stallion owners allowing theirhorsesto be used for collection.

Rare breeds show

“We have therefore launched this new £1.5 million appeal in conjunction with the HackneyHorseSociety and the donation by His Royal Highness’s Charitable Foundation will be earmarked for collection fromHackneystallions selected by the society,” says Tom.

To further promote the UK’s traditional equine breeds the HHS is organising a Rare Breeds of the Year Show incorporating its own championships, supported by the Horserace Betting Levy Board and RBST.This will be taking place this year on 4 October at Houghton Hall Equestrian Centre.