HRH The Princess Royal has spoken with Tullis Matson, Managing Director of Stallion AI and founder of conservation charity Natures Safe, in a new interview filmed at Gatcombe Park, brought together by the team at D&H, about the future of the Suffolk Punch, one of the world's oldest heavy horse breeds and now critically endangered, with only around 75 breeding mares left across England.
The Princess Royal has bred and kept Suffolk Punches at Gatcombe Park for three generations and is regarded as one of the breed's most prominent champions. The conversation and accompanying footage/images show the horses at work on the estate, underlining a point she has long made, that this is not a breed suited only to preservation in name, but one still doing the jobs it was bred for.
The Suffolk Punch's critically endangered status has made it a focus for Stallion AI Services, as well as Natures Safe, a charity working to save animals from extinction by storing and regenerating cells from endangered species. In the interview, The Princess Royal and Tullis Matson discussed the breed's shrinking gene pool. This is partly a consequence of the Suffolk Punch's own success as a cross-breeding partner, which meant fewer horses were bred pure over time. Combined with mares proving more difficult to get in foal, Matson believes this is exactly where technology now has a key role to play in saving breeds like this.
The Princess Royal also spoke about the breed's temperament and its enduring value as a working animal, "We forget at our peril just how good they were at working and how much they worked for us. People need to understand that because they have always been working partners, they understand about work, that is what they enjoy doing. Show them a piece of harness and they know what they're doing. There is a commercial possibility for these horses, we just have to be aware of what that could be. People must make more effort to make it possible."
Tullis Matson said the visit to Gatcombe Park reinforced the scale of what's at stake and what's possible.
"It was an honour to be out there this morning to see what they can do and the versatility of them," Matson said. "The importance of saving them is absolutely paramount. If we lose the breed, we can never get them back. We need to try to think outside the box. Therapy horses, logging and other modern working roles all have a part to play in giving this breed a viable future."
With so few breeding mares left, the future of the Suffolk Punch depends on exactly this kind of visibility and a willingness to think differently about the breed's role today. It is a cause The Princess Royal and Natures Safe remain firmly committed to.
D&H, which has fed horses at Gatcombe Park for several decades, including The Princess Royal's personal horses, the racehorses based there, and now three generations of her Suffolk Punches, continues to support the work to protect the breed's survival. The relationship reflects D&H's broader focus on providing excellence in nutrition for happy, healthy horses, tailored to every life stage and role, from performance horses to native breeds.
Watch the full film here:
