Equine breeds and their uses around the world

In developing countries where agriculture has not yet seen a wide development of mechanisation, the horse is still used a lot for its motive power.
Different animal species can be used for work. Those the best suited must be able to breed in local conditions, and be resistant enough to provide the amount of work demanded. They should be affordable in price, and available locally. In numerous cases, the local breeds provide the best alternative. Different species of animal can be used for these tasks, particularly cattle (oxen, bulls, and cows), buffalo, camels, equines and more specifically mules and donkeys.
In a lot of countries mules and donkeys are also used for rural transport. Both Asia and Africa boast around 20 million mules and donkeys, and it is on these continents that the herds are the largest. Their use in agriculture and rural transport is still developing thanks to the low upkeep cost they incur.

In developed countries, equestrian leisure activities have developed alongside the increase in the standard of living and spare time.
These uses appeared in France in the second half of the XXth Century, and have diversified the use of the horse. The previous uses still exist but are no longer dominant.
In western Europe, the activities practiced are numerous, and more or less developed depending on the country. Thus, we can distinguish countries with versatile uses for the horse such as France, Italy, Germany and the United Kingdom. All these countries have well developed racing, sports-leisure, and meat sectors. However even when comparing these countries, practices are different, especially in the three types of racing. In France and Italy, all three disciplines are very active, the UK only organises gallop races, and Germany mainly trotting races and flat races.

Some countries have less diverse uses. Sweden or Ireland for example, both have two well developed sectors : sports-leisure and racing. Their racing sectors are quite specialised, trotting races in Sweden (>90 % of the races organised) and gallop racing in Ireland.
Other countries have an even more specific use particularly Switzerland and the Netherlands where the main equestrian activites are sports and leisure, they organise very few races.
In some regions, the horse is still used as a working animal to herd cattle, a common practice in Camargue.

When agriculture begins to become more mechanised, the uses of horses for work gradually disappear to the profit of sports and leisure uses, this however leads to a decline in the number of equines.
Poland for example, has recently mechanised its agriculture, and has seen a drop in the equine headcount from over 2 million at the beginning of the eighties, to around 300 000 at the turn of the century.

From over 60 countries, these breeds are registered thanks to their UELN number.

Germany, France and the United States, with repectively 46, 37 and 34 registered breeds, are the countries which are most represented.
Almost three quarters of all the breeds registered are warmbloods (saddle breeds), they include sports breeds, leisure breeds and ponies. Draft breeds represent around 15 % of the number of breeds. Racing breeds are few : around 5 % since the thoroughbred is managed on a worldwide basis, and the headquarters are in England.
Germany and the United States have numerous registered saddle breeds  (>30), whereas France has declared a high number of draft horses and donkeys, and only 15 saddle breeds.

An international identification system for equines has been implemented : the UELN (Universal Equine Life Number).
This nuber has 15 digits, the first 6 identify the country and the database the horse was first registered in, the other numbers are the individual horse’s ID national number.
For example, the French database SIRE uses the ID 250001. Therefore horses registered for the first time in France will have a UELN beginning with 250001, followed by the horse’s SIRE number.