Dorset Horn

An endangered British breed from Dorset in south-west England, documented since the 17th century. It probably derives from Spanish Merinos crossed with local tan-faced sheep similar to today's Portland, and was not influenced by Leicester or Southdown crosses.

White-woolled and white-faced with characteristic pink nostrils; both sexes are horned, rams with heavy spirals. The polled Poll Dorset was bred in Australia with Corriedale and Ryeland, and a separate Polled Dorset arose in the USA; both are now more widespread than the horned original.

Highly prolific, sometimes lambing twice a year; among British sheep it alone breeds through the winter. Kept in twenty countries, it contributed to the South African Dorper and Dormer and the British Milksheep.