been imported to the Tori stud describe the Finnish mares obtained. Their average height was , and the colour was typically dark with a star. Their heads were large and necks short but well-carried; their bodies sturdy and proportionate with muscular withers, deep chest and muscular back; the loins were on the long side, and the haunches muscular if sloping. The leg joints were well-defined, the pasterns short and the feet tough. However, records also noted that the legs had "serious faults of position," not further defined. The Finnish horses also were considered calm and good workers, and swift walkers and runners. Decline In the 18th century, the horse population of Finland vastly diminished in both numbers and quality. At the beginning of the century, during the Great Northern War campaigns of Charles XII, the Finnish cavalry was larger than at any other time in history, and almost every usable horse of Finland was needed. Horses were used by the cavalry, infantry, and for transporting supplies. Horses serving in the Swedish military never returned to Finland; even the animals provided to the last remaining Swedish reinforcement regiments were taken to Sweden in 1714, and to Norway in 1718. The Russian invasion and occupation caused additional hardships. By the end of Russian occupation in 1721, a third of the Finnish human populace as well as large numbers of horses were lost to war and epidemic diseases. Furthermore, a great number of horses were exported to Russia during the invasion at the command of Peter I. Horses removed from Finland ended up mainly in the area of Vyatka government, and some Russian researchers such as Simanov and Moerder have suggested that the Vyatka horse was developed mainly from Estonian and Finnish bloodlines. In addition to the hardships of war and occupation, the treaties of Nystad in 1721 and Åbo in 1743 ceded Finnish territory to Russia, which resulted in much of the Finnish horse population being left behind the new borders. The Finnish horses in these now-Russian areas were crossbred with the Russian horses in significant numbers. With the Russians having taken the best animals, combined with the old custom of pastures shared by municipalities or larger areas, rebuilding the horse population took decades. To increase numbers, horses were often bred too young, and inbreeding also occurred. By 1761, one of the first researchers in the agricultural chemistry in Finland described the