Founder of Tori Horse Hetman – 120 and Tori Stud -150

In 2006, Estonian horse breeders celebrate the 120th anniversary of the birth of Hetman, the founder stallion of the Tori Horse, and the 150-year anniversary of the establishment of the Tori Stud. The magic word TORI has different meanings in different languages. For Estonians the word Tori refers to a horse of Tori breed, a name originally derived from a place name. Tori became the centre for horse breeding 1.5 centuries ago; Tori Stud was founded in 1856. The 19th century saw major changes in the world economy. Growth of industry and urbanization led to an increased demand for foodstuffs, while the number of producers decreased. Thus, big changes took place in rural development as well. Farmers seized the opportunity to drain soil, switch over to crop rotation, replace wooden plough by bottom plough, wooden harrow by iron spiked harrow, and take into use field cultivator, and other new tillage implements and machines. Application of the new agricultural equipment required a bigger and stronger horse than the aboriginal Estonian horse with its 350 kg body weight. To increase the tractive power, the native horse was crossed with various other breeds of horse. Liquidation of serfdom, transition from curve labour to monetary rent, and purchase of farmsteads in perpetuity laid the foundations for reorganising the agrarian society. Since farmers had no opportunity to obtain new breeds, they kept on raising the native horse on their farmsteads (H.Peterson, 1999 (a)). In the 1st period of the development of the Tori Stud (1856-1880) two trends were predominating. A.Th.Middendorff and his proponents suggested improving the native Estonian horse breed by top-quality foreign breeds. The opponents, primarily the pheasants, proved by tests that the local horse is an undemanding, strong and hardy horse, and its body size shall be improved by pure-breeding. Well, the results of the native Estonian horse improvement tests in which Finnish, Arabian, and, later on, Ardennes and Norwegian horses were used, did not reveal any advantage over pure-breeding. In proof of superior results was a stallion of the Estonian native breed named Vapsikas Tk 205, born in 1860, height 141cm, weight 410kg, who achieved great fame and was even awarded a silver coin for his tractive power at the horse shows in Riga in 1865 as well as in Moscow and Paris in 1866 (H.Peterson,1999 (a)). In the 2nd period (1880-1908) the Tori Stud was in charge of breeding expensive cavalry horses for the tsarist army. The native mares were crossed with Orlov Trotter, Anglo-Arabian, Thoroughbred, East Prussian and other stallions. Unfortunately, this activity did not contribute to the development of the native horse into a horse suited for agricultural purposes. A turning point in the improvement of the native Estonian horse breed occurred in the late 19th century. In 1892, the Tori Stud hired a stallion Hetman of the Norfolk-Roadster breed from count Fr.G.M. v. Berg, the owner of the Sangaste manor. Two years later the stallion was bought in perpetuity and was used for breeding until 1912. During that period, systematic breeding of the Tori Horse was initiated, whereas Hetman was the foundation sire of the breed. Since then, the breed group of horses bred at Tori has been named the Tori- Roadster type (H.Peterson, 1999 (b)).