Cleveland Bay

Overview

The Cleveland Bay Horse Society calls the Cleveland Bay England's oldest breed of horse, with a history older than its records. It is a strong, clean-legged horse that is always bay with black points, and has been bred for carrying goods, ploughing, coaching, hunting and riding. The society credits it with "substance, activity, stamina and a temperament that is unsurpassed".

History

In the Middle Ages, Yorkshire had clean-legged bay horses used for pack and pillion work. They carried goods for travelling salesmen called chapmen, and were first known as Chapman horses. The name Cleveland Bay came later, from their colour and their link with the Cleveland district of North Yorkshire.

When coaches arrived in the reign of Elizabeth I, the breed's strength and endurance suited it to pulling the first heavy vehicles. As roads improved and travellers wanted faster journeys, the eastern horses that founded the Thoroughbred were brought into Yorkshire in the early 1700s. Descendants of the Darley Arab and the Godolphin Barb were crossed with Cleveland mares and gave the breed more pace. Cleveland Bays were also used to improve other breeds, and many European warmbloods have Cleveland Bay ancestry, notably the Oldenburg, which used Cleveland Bay stallions extensively in the 1860s.

The railways brought decline, and by the 1880s the breed was close to extinction. Enthusiasts formed the Cleveland Bay Horse Society in 1884 to preserve and promote it. Exports to the United States then revived it for some decades, but by the early 1900s it was declining again, and many Cleveland Bays were lost as artillery horses in the First World War. By the early 1960s only a handful of mature stallions were left in England.

Queen Elizabeth II, whose grandfather had bred Cleveland Bays in the 1920s, bought the pure-bred colt Mulgrave Supreme, born in 1961 and earmarked for export, and made him available at public stud. Stallion numbers rose sharply over the next ten years. Numbers dropped again in the 1980s, and the society has since run breeding programmes and subsidised semen collection from genetically valuable stallions.

Breed standard

• Height: 16.0 hh to 16.2 hh, though height should not disqualify an otherwise good horse.
• Colour: bay with black points (black legs, mane and tail). Grey hairs in the mane and tail do not disqualify, and are a feature of some pure strains. No white beyond a very small star. Legs that are bay or red below the knees and hocks do not disqualify, but are a colour fault. Since January 2005, mismarked horses can still be registered as pure, with a note on the passport and in the stud book.
• Body: wide and deep, with a back that is not too long, strong, muscular loins and sloping, deep, muscular shoulders. Quarters level, powerful, long and oval, with the tail springing well from them.
• Head and neck: a bold head, not too small, carried on a long, lean neck.
• Legs: muscular arms and thighs, large, well-closed knees and hocks, and 9 inches or more of good flat bone below the knee. Strong, sloping pasterns. Legs clean of excess hair.
• Feet: one of the breed's most important features; the feet must be of the best quality, and blue in colour.
• Action: true, straight and free, moving freely from the shoulder. High action is not characteristic of the breed.

Temperament and uses

Since its revival, Cleveland Bays and Cleveland crosses have produced top-quality horses in driving, dressage and show jumping, some to Olympic standard. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust notes the breed's long association with royal carriage work. As with any breed, individual horses vary.

Conservation

The Cleveland Bay is a Priority breed on the Rare Breeds Survival Trust's Watchlist.