Cleveland Bay Horse Breed

The Cleveland Bay Horse Breed...

The Cleveland Bay was once called the Yorkshire Coach Horse and crossed with the Thoroughbred, the breed produces fine upstanding heavyweight hunters, excellent carriage horses and some first rate show jumpers.

Did You Know :

The survival of the Cleveland Bay was aided in no small measure by Queen Elizabeth II.

A colt named Mulgrave Supreme, due to be sent to the United States was bought by the Queen, subsequently broken to saddle and to harness and then made available to breeders of Cleveland Bays, both pure and part bred, throughout Britain.

This tremendously successful promotional exercise sparked off renewed enthusiasm among breeders. Prince Phillip further enhanced the breeds profile by driving for many years teams of pure and part bred Cleveland Bays at international level.

Physical Attributes of the Cleveland Bay Horse Breed

Height: From 16 to 16.2hh. Height does not disqualify an otherwise good animal

Colour Range: Bay with black points

Conformation:

• Bold head not too small with large well set kind eyes and large fine ears.
• Long lean neck and deep sloping muscular shoulders.
• Deep wide body with muscular loins powerful hindquarters and well set on tail.
• Clean limbs without feather
• Muscular forearms, thighs and second thighs, large knees and hocks and strong sloping pasterns.
• Good sound feet.

Origins of the Cleveland Bay

The Cleveland Bay is probably the oldest British breed, developed from a packhorse known as the Chapman horse.

In the 17th century, Andalusian and Barb blood was introduced to produce a fine carriage horse - named the Cleveland Bay.

Motorized transport saw the breed decline, but when crossed with the thoroughbred, the breed produces excellent heavyweight hunters and carriage horses.