"Cleveland Bays" Photographic Art Print

The Cleveland Bay is the oldest breed of native horse in England and, as the name suggests, they are almost always bay in colour. They have a large head, slightly convex profile, and a long and well-muscled body with strong but relatively short legs. They tend to stand between 16 and 16.2 HH and have a docile and willing temperament. They are very versatile horses with great substance, stamina, activity and strength.

Their history predates any written records yet, shockingly, they are classified as the second most at-risk animal in the UK with only 64 breeding females remaining in the UK. It is thought that the breed's ancestors were developed during the Middle Ages in the north-east of England as pack and pillion horses. They became known as "Chapman Horses" because of their use by travelling merchants known as "chapmen". What is now recognised as the Cleveland Bay resulted from subsequent cross breeding with other breeds from abroad, such as the Barb and the Andalusian. The breed became lighter in frame and became very popular as carriage horses. In the 19th century, as roads improved and shorter journey times were required, the Cleveland Bay was crossed with Thoroughbreds to add more pace to the breed. Conversely, Cleveland bays also became popular to improve other breeds and many European Warmblood horses have Cleveland Bay in their ancestry.

Over the years the popularity of the Cleveland Bay has waxed and waned with the fashions. Following the development of the railways, coach travel became less prevalent and the popularity of the Cleveland suffered accordingly. So much so that by the 1880s the breed was on the brink of extinction. In a bid to preserve and promote the breed the Cleveland Bay Horse Society was formed in 1884. The breed did then experience a renaissance and the next few decades saw thousands of horses with Cleveland Bay blood exported abroad to be used as pleasure horses for both riding and as carriage horses. However, by the 1900s the breed was in decline again, a situation which was exacerbated by the first world war when many Clevelands were used as artillery horses and were lost on the battlefields. By the end of the second world war, the breed was barely hanging on to existence and by the 1960s there were only a handful of breeding stallions and not many more mares with which to revive the breed. The Queen became a champion of the breed when she bought a stallion, Mulgrave Supreme, who was bred to pure and part-bred Cleveland mares, thereby helping to improve numbers and restore its popularity.

The breed's versatility has seen it finding great success as a sports horse in a variety of different disciplines including driving, dressage and show-jumping. Despite this, numbers have since dwindled and the breed is now classed by the Rare Breed Survival Trust as critically endangered, meaning there are less than 300 breeding females registered worldwide. The CBHS continues to proactively promote the breed by developing breeding programmes which include an advisory scheme (Sparks), created and developed to support the genetic health of the global Cleveland Bay population. The problem seems to be that we are not breeding enough pure-bred animals. The hope is that the versatility and willingness of this gentle breed is recognised by a new generation of horse owners and breeders to secure its future for generations to come.