Carriage Horses in Britain

Cleveland Bay Horses

History

ENGLISH HERITAGE

The Cleveland Bay originated in Britain, in the Cleveland area of Northern Yorkshire, and is the oldest of the indigenous breed of English horses. Yorkshire is known as the source of two breeds, the Thoroughbred and the Cleveland Bay. The Cleveland Bay breed is thought to have evolved from crossing native bay colored mares with Oriental stallions during the 17th century. Thirty-two of the original animals were first offspring of the founding Thoroughbred studs. Shaped by a harsh environment, a horse of durability, longevity and quiet disposition resulted. These characteristics, combined with the uniformity of bay color, size, and substance, developed a versatile breed used as hunt horse, coach or pack horse, and as an agricultural worker. Originally known as the Chapman horse, after the salesmen who exclusively used Cleveland Bays, the breed excelled as an all-purpose horse.

During the 19th century, some Cleveland Bays were bred to Thoroughbreds, which produced the Yorkshire Coach Horse, a carriage horse with unmatched ability for speed, style, and power.

BREED STANDARDS

• Height: 16-17 hands

• Weight: 1225-1500 lbs
• Girth: 82-86"
• Bone: 9"
• Colour: Bay - black points, mane and tail, a small white star is permissible

BREED CHARACTERISTICS

• Great substance.
  

• Clean-legged with excellent feet and flat cannon bones.
• Immensley powerful quarters that contribute to jumping ability and dressage.
• Strong powerful shoulders allow movement with ground covering power, which
• is ideal for carriage work and dressage.
• Long lived.
• Prepotent, transmitting uniforminty in type and substance.

Friesan Horses

Most of this information comes from an excellent Friesan Horse Assoc. site quoting a Dutch book titled "Het Friese Paard" by G. J. A. Bouma, 1979.

The History...

The Friesen is truly an ancient breed. The Friesian horse descends from the Equus robustus of cave painting fame. The breeding of this black horse began in a province of the Netherlands once known as "Friesland". Used as a war horse by Friesian armies and as a Crusading Knight's war steed to the Middle East, the Friesian was known to be a lighter and more refined "draft-type" horse.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, but probably also earlier, Arabian blood was introduced, especially through Andalusian horses from Spain. This has given them the high knee-action, the small head and the craning neck. Because of his temperament the Friesian horse is considered warm blooded. The Friesian horse has been kept free from influence of the English Thoroughbred. During the last two centuries it has been bred pure.

Breeding horses and dealing in them was very important for the Frisians. The monks in the many monasteries in Friesland before the reformation did a lot of horsebreeding. Influenced by Iberian horses and Andulusian stock, they developed a refinement and extravagent motion not seen in the heavier breeds before. Because of their popularity and versitility, they were often cross-bred with other horses to improve horse stock and bloodlines.

Physical Characteristics...

• Black coat (early in the breed grey and brown coats were recognized as well)
• Small white spot allowed on forehead or upper lip but no where else
• Head is refined
• Pronounced crest
• Thick neck with a gentle slope to the shoulder
  
• Overall thick boned
• Short cannons
• Feathering on leg can range from heavy to sparse. Normal feathering occurs from knees down along the back of the cannon bone and around the ankles and pasterns.
• Thick and solid hooves

Hanoverian Horses

Description

The Hanoverian is a warmblood horse which is bred to excel in the equestrian disciplines of jumping, dressage, eventing, and driving. The Hanoverian horse originated with the establishment of the State Stud of Lower Saxony at Celle, Germany in 1735. Refining stallions, primarily Thoroughbreds, were crossed with domestic mares to improve the quality of horses for cavalry and farming. Through the years the Hanoverian breeding program has adapted to the need for a more athletic riding horses, introducing other breeds as appropriate. The result is the modern Hanoverian horse.

Holsteiner (Holstein)

A heavier German breed than the Hanoverian, the Holstein has a history dating back to the 14th century when it was a weight-carrying war horse. Originally the horse was valued for his strength, steadiness and reliability, and by the military for his courage and agility. Tthe Holsteiner is a heavily muscled saddle horse, and has been used extensively as a carriage horse. American Holsteiner Horse Association

Oldenburg

The heaviest of the German warmbloods, the Oldenburg often has many characteristicsof the draft breeds: flat hooves, heavy head and neck. It lacks the endurance of some other warmbloods, but makes a good coach horse, especially when crossed on Thoroughbreds.

Trakehner Horses

Thanks to Patricia L. Goodman at the American Trakehner site for the information on the History of the breed.

History

The correct name for the Trakener breed is "the East Prussian Warmblood Horse of Trakehner Origin." It is one of the oldest European warmblood breeds with a history that reaches back more than 400 years. The breed is based on a small local East Prussian horse, the "Schwaike", of phenomenal endurance and versatility which, throughout the years, had been crossed with various larger "imported" stallions to provide mounts for warfare, for general transportation and for agricultural work.

In the early 18th century, King Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, the father of Friedrich the Great, began to see the need for a new type of cavalry mount for the Prussian army. War tactics had changed and now required a lighter, more comfortable horse with more endurance and speed than the heavier horses previously needed to carry armor and haul heavy equipment. The king wanted horses for his officers to ride, attractive enough to make them proud, solid enough to stay sound, with a comfortable, ground-covering trot that would enable them to travel quickly and efficiently. So he chose the best horses from seven of his royal breeding farms, and in 1732 moved them all to the new royal stud at Trakehnen, began selective breeding among them, and the Trakehner breed evolved.

When Count Lindenau took over the stud management in 1787, he instituted even stricter selection, eliminating two-thirds of the stallions and one-third of the broodmares. He also began to allow private breeders to bring their mares to be serviced by the royal stallions.

Characteristics

The Trakehner is a European warmblood horse of East Prussian origin, the foundation for which was laid at the main stud farm established in Trakehnen, East Prussia, in 1732. The breed's name is derived from this world-famous farm, and the bloodlines can be traced back to this source. At the beginning, the horse was a stocky strong native animal which needed size and refinement. The really important and decisive development of the breed, therefore, occurred in the early 1800s when top quality English Thoroughbred and Arabian blood began to be introduced in small quantities. The goal of the breeding programs then became directed toward breeding a better endurance horse which would prove itself not only highly efficient as a riding horse during wartime, but also as a working horse on East Prussian farms during times of peace. The object, ultimately, was to add the size, nerve, spirit and endurance of the Thoroughbred to the bulk, stability and nobility of the native breed.

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