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Ipswich Town to save Suffolk Punch horse charity

Brenner Woolley,at Portman Roadand
Katy Prickett
ITFC Ipswich Town badge on a mid-blue shirt. The badge is red, white and blue and the words "Ipswich Town Football Club" are on it as well as a white horse with a hoof on a ball. ITFC
The Suffolk Punch has featured on Ipswich Town's crest since 1972, based on a design by John Gammage

A charity which protects the critically endangered Suffolk Punch horse breed is to be saved by Ipswich Town FC.

The horse has featured on the club's badge for more than 50 years and news the Suffolk Punch Trust may soon cease to exist hit fans hard.

The trust closed its visitor centre, cafe and shop due to high costs in February and later put its 120-acre farm and visitor centre on the market for £2.4m.

"We carry the Suffolk Punch on our crest... and this has been one that people have been keen for us to support and it's the right thing to do," said Mark Ashton, chairman and chief executive of the Premier League side.

"Whatever football club you support, you know what the Suffolk Punch means and you know what club it represents, so I think it's important - numerous supporters have written to me about this."

Suffolk Punch horses – including award-winning show horses - have been bred at the trust's Colony Stud at Hollesley, on the Suffolk coast, since 1759.

According to its website, the site is home to its own 19 horses, so the sale raised questions about what would happen to them.

'Rarer than a giant panda'

Getty Images Three Suffolk punch horses in a field. Two are in the foreground while the third is in the background. They have chestnut brown fur and a light brown mane. They are standing on grassy heathland. Getty Images
Officially known as Suffolk Horses, the nickname Suffolk Punch probably derives from an old English word meaning short and stout
  • The Suffolk Punch is the oldest breed of heavy horse to exist in its present form
  • All the modern horses are descended from just one horse, Crisp's Horse of Ufford, which was foaled in 1768
  • There were thousands of Suffolks throughout East Anglia before World War One, bred as tireless farm horses able to deal with heavy clay soils
  • They are always chestnut, although this can range in colour from light to dark, and they stand between 16.1 and 17.2 hands (1.65m/5ft 5in and 1.77m/5ft10in)
  • Today there are fewer than 500 breeding mares left in the world, putting them on the critical watch list of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust
  • This means they are even rarer than giant pandas

Source: Inside the Equine

Stuart Howells/BBC A head and shoulder shot of Mark Ashton, who has short greying hair and a clipped greying beard. He is smiling and wearing a grey suit, with a poppy brooch on its lapel, plus a white shirt and blue tie. On the left is black design in relief showing a Suffolk punch, with its left front leg raised up above a football. Stuart Howells/BBC
Mark Ashton said backing the Suffolk Punch Trust was another way the club could play its part in the local community

The announcement was made public at half time at the Portman Road stadium, during the Tractor Boys' 2-1 defeat to Bournemouth.

Ashton said: "I don't think the breed itself, from what I'm being told, is in immediate danger or threat, but we need to make sure that we're on the front foot and we're taking the right steps to secure the future of the breed.

"We also have to make sure there's a plan in place for the long term, because there's no point just stepping in short term and then you're back in the same position in a year's time."

He added the club's American ownership group had been "very, very supportive" of the move.

Details of the move were revealed by Mark Ashton on BBC Radio Suffolk Sport's pre-match programme

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