Mares with the wide chests and leg muscling common to Cleveland Bays. David Field
Cleveland Bay Horse Society of North America
P.O. Box 483
Goshen, New Hampshire 03752
www.clevelandbay.org
The Cleveland Bay is a centuries-old breed that has always been intriguing. Appreciation for this superb horse is not solely because of its critically rare status—which, in and of itself, is unique—but also because of its intelligence, beauty, and temperament. It is truly an all-around horse. Cleveland Bays today do everything from trail riding, cross-country, and dressage, to jumping, driving, and even herding and working cattle. It is an honest horse that really wants to work hard for its owner.
The Cleveland Bay cross is also known for being an outstanding athlete, but without a doubt, the purebred Cleveland Bay can do anything the partbred can do. Unfortunately, this fact is underestimated, contributing to its critically rare status; without purebreds, there would be no partbreds. The Cleveland Bay is a unique, rare horse that deserves to be preserved.
History
The Cleveland Bay originated in the Cleveland area of northern Yorkshire, England. Yorkshire is known as the source of two breeds, the Thoroughbred and the Cleveland Bay, but the latter is the oldest indigenous English horse breed. It can be traced back to approximately 1250 AD.* During that period, an abbot recorded that the native bay horses possessed exceptional strength and endurance. They were strong enough to carry a 600-pound pack 60 miles a day, four days a week, over rugged terrain. They could carry a knight and his provisions and still be agile enough to make lightning attacks and speedy retreats as needed. Cattle rustlers from the north also found them invaluable.*
Due to their exceptional ability, they were kept as a separate breed and excelled as all-around using horses. They were admired by journeymen merchants, locally called “chapmen,” who exclusively used the horses, thus they became known first as chapmen horses.* Bay colored mares from these native horses were crossed with oriental stallions during the seventeenth century for specific type, which is thought to have evolved eventually into the modern Cleveland Bay.
Shaped by a harsh environment, horses of durability, longevity, and quiet disposition resulted. These characteristics, combined with size, substance, and uniformity of the bay color, produced a versatile breed that was used as a hunt horse, coach or pack horse, and agricultural worker.*
These notable horses were so valued that the government gave contracts to Yorkshire men to mount crack cavalry units. Also, the East India Company supplied its studs (horse farms) with the stallions to upgrade the local Asian breeds (F. F. Rives, The Southern Planter, March 1855).
Over the centuries, only minimal additions of outside blood were allowed. It is known that during the reign of King Charles I from 1625 to 1649, the Spanish, or Andalusian, horse was introduced to England, and some of its blood was added to the Cleveland Bay.
During the eighteenth century, some thirty-two of the first offspring of the Arabian foundation sires of the Thoroughbred breed were bred to Cleveland mares. This practice ceased in the 1780s, and since then no outside crosses have been permitted. It is frequently stated that the reason the Thoroughbred and Arabian cross so successfully with the Cleveland Bay is because of the common ancestry the Cleveland Bay has with the Thoroughbred.* Due to the known prepotency of the Cleveland Bay, it was used as foundation stock or improvement sires for the Oldenburg, Anglo Norman (Selle Francais), Holsteiner, Clydesdale (Clydesdale stud book of 1887, volume 1), and other breeds.*
The breed’s popularity peaked in the late 1880s. In 1884, the Cleveland Bay Horse Society of Great Britain published the first volume of its studbook, which contained stallions and mares selected for their purity and pedigrees tracing back over a century. Since then, the Cleveland Bay has remained relatively free from the influence of other breeds, thus it is extraordinarily dominant for producing uniformity of size, conformation, soundness, stamina, temperament, and color. As a breed, the Cleveland Bay has been kept purer than any other breed of British stock, except for the Thoroughbred. This makes it remarkable in its purity and ensures its value for crossing purposes. It was the sire of choice during the peak of the carriage era.*
During the nineteenth 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. With the advent of the mechanical age, however, numbers of Cleveland Bays and Yorkshire Coach Horses declined. By the early 1920s, very few pure Cleveland Bays were left in existence. The few remaining stallions and mares from the Yorkshire Coach Horse stud book were accepted into the Cleveland Bay stud book when the former’s society ceased. A few other unregistered Cleveland mares in Yorkshire with an abundance of Cleveland bloodlines were accepted into the Grading registry. Progeny from these two mare lines have added some diversity to the gene pool.
The breed was in dire straights again when the horse were further decimated by being used as artillery horses during World War I. The breed survived in the region of its birthplace during these difficult times, but in the 1960s, only five or six mature stallions were known. A few dedicated breeders kept the breed going and were helped in the 1950s, when Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II purchased a Cleveland stallion and reinstated the King George V Challenge Cup for the highest breed award to encourage more breeding. Due to the foresight and determination of the Yorkshire admirers, the breed survived and numbers grew. The Queen of England became the patron of the breed and her Royal Mews (stable) continues the tradition of using Cleveland Bays and crossbreds in ceremonial duties.
In the United States
The first Cleveland Bay stallions imported into the United States were sent to Maryland, Virginia, and Massachusetts in the early 1800s. Later in 1884, the Upperville Colt and Horse Show in Virginia was created to showcase Colonel Dulany’s imported Cleveland stallion, Scrivington, and his offspring.
Hundreds of Cleveland Bays were shipped to the United States to fulfill its demand for horses. They were commonly referred to as “coachers” or “English coach horses,” as well as by breed name. This use of differing names for the same breed tended to obscure actual numbers and the influence the Cleveland Bay had in the States.*
When William F. “Buff alo Bill” Cody took his Wild West show to England to perform at the request of Queen Victoria, he was so impressed by what he saw of the Cleveland Bay horses that he purchased and imported a number of them to the United States. They were used in the Wild West show, and Buff alo Bill would culminate performances by driving six purebred stallions in a stagecoach hitch. Twelve stallions and fourteen mares were registered in the American Cleveland Bay stud book by William F. Cody.
The American West utilized the stallions in the breeding of range horses, appreciating their staying quality (endurance), easy maintenance, and ability to handle the biggest of steers. William Powell, whose father owned a large ranch in the West and several hundred head of horses, recalled, “Among the stallions was a Cleveland Bay, and of course he was bred to all kinds of range mares, but he turned out some of the best saddle horses in the country.” He continued by saying that they were capable of carrying a two-hundred-pound cowboy, plus all his equipment, through a full day of roundup and stock work. “They had a lot of staying quality, were easy keepers and it took a Thoroughbred to outrun one in a race. It took a big steer on the end of a rope to even worry one of the partbred Cleveland saddle horses.” (The Longhorn, June 15, 1940)
To quote from a sales catalog prepared in 1889 by Jesse Harris, importer of horses at Fort Collins, Colorado: “We think we are safe in asserting that in no breed of horse known do the sires more faithfully mark their progeny than the Cleveland Bay . . . we can show mares of different grades and colours from Percheron to Cayuse and Broncho, all suckling bay colts by Cleveland Bay sires. [The breed] is a good disposition, easy to break and of superior intelligence.”*
The Cleveland Bay Horse Society of North America (CBHSNA) was founded in 1885, with two thousand stallions and mares registered by 1907. It is one of the oldest warmblood registries and continues to this day. Originally imported as a superb coach horse, Cleveland Bay interest waned during mechanization, but was briefly revived in the 1930s when Alexander Mackey-Smith imported founding stock for hunters.
The Cleveland Bay has successfully been crossbred to Thoroughbred types to produce outstanding performance horses in dressage, driving, and jumping. Many other Cleveland Bay partbreds compete in all disciplines of horsemanship. It is through these quality animals that breed recognition is becoming known.
Presently there are only about 157 purebred Cleveland Bays in the United States and Canada. With the increase in numbers, some purebreds are competing along with their breeding duties, however the breed is still on the critical list of the Equus Survival Trust, with one hundred to three hundred active breeding mares. Cleveland Bay lovers from the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and Australia are dedicated to the conservation of this unique horse.
The Cleveland Bay is a calm, yet powerful horse with good body depth and substance. Emerald Hill Farm Cleveland Bay Horses
Registry Requirements
The CBHSNA requires that both pure and partbred Cleveland Bays are registered with the Cleveland Bay Horse Society of Great Britain. For purebreds it requires the following:
• The horse must be a purebred and sired by a licensed Cleveland Bay stallion and out of a registered Cleveland Bay mare in the CBHS stud book.
• The horse’s sire should have been awarded the Basic License for purebred Cleveland Bays. This process involves CBHSNA with the Cleveland Bay Horse Society reviewing and approving the application. Application for the Basic License can begin when the horse is three.
• Only a breeder can enter a horse for registration.
• The horse must be bay with black points and no white markings other than a small white star. Roaning in the coat is not acceptable.
• An identification chart must be completed by a veterinarian to show at least five whorls and any scars or markings, or if the horse has a microchipped number.
Partbred Cleveland Bays have been referred to as Cleveland Bay Sport Horses; however, the Cleveland Bay Horse Society’s registry for them is called the Part Bred Registry. Stallions can apply for a license if they are a registered partbred.
For registering a partbred, the same criteria for registering purebreds apply except the horse must have at least one great grandparent in the full Cleveland Bay Horse Society stud book. If the horse is by a pure or partbred Cleveland Bay stallion, but the stallion is not licensed by the Cleveland Bay Horse Society, the entry will be accepted by virtue of its grandparents and proof of the covering. As well, there should be written evidence of the claimed breeding. Licensing is subject to an initial veterinary inspection and also a second one, three years later. The Society reserves the right to inspect any colt/stallion at any stage. Partbreds can also be registered with any other registry they qualify for.
The CBHSNA is the first contact for a horse applying for a Basic Stallion Breeding License in North America. The process involves CBHSNA Breeding Committee forwarding the completed application forms to the Cleveland Bay Horse Society, which reviews and makes a decision about the application.
Standards
The following standard of points are for the guidance of persons interested in the breed, as well as judges. These standards have been established by the Cleveland Bay Horse Society in Great Britain and are the standards that the CBHSNA follows.
Height: 16 to 16.2 hands, but height outside of these parameters should not disqualify an otherwise good sort.
Weight: Between 1,225 and 1,500 pounds.
Color: The horse must be bay with black points—that is, black legs, mane, and tail. Possessing gray hairs in mane and tail does not disqualify the horse, as it has long been recognized as a feature in certain strains of pure Cleveland blood. White is not admissible beyond a small, white star. Legs that are bay or red below the knees and hocks do not disqualify the horse, but are considered a fault as to color.
Body: The body should be wide and deep. The back should not be too long and should be strong with muscular loins. The shoulders should be sloping, deep, and muscular. Quarters should be level, powerful, long, and oval, with the tail springing well from the quarters.
Head and neck: The head should be bold and not too small. It should be well carried on a long, lean neck.
Eyes: The eyes should be large, well set, and kindly in expression.
Ears: The ears tend to be large and fine.
Limbs: Arms, thighs, and second thighs should be muscular. The knees and hocks should be large and well closed. There should be 9 inches or more of good flat bone below the knee when measured at the narrowest point on a tight tape. The pasterns should be strong, sloping, and not too long. The legs should be clean of superfluous hair and as clean and hard as possible.
Feet: One of the most important features of the breed is its feet. They must be of the best and should be blue in color. Feet that are shallow or narrow are undesirable. As the saying goes: No foot, no horse.
Action: The Cleveland’s way of going must be true, straight, and free. High action is not characteristic of the breed. A Cleveland that moves well and is full of courage will move freely from the shoulder and will flex its knees and hocks sufficiently. The action required is free all around, gets over the ground, and fits the wear and tear qualities of the breed.
General: Cleveland Bay horses have the characteristics of being long-lived and prepotent, transmitting uniformity in type and substance. They are known for their calm temperament, intelligence, and soundness, which are ideal for hunting, dressage, and driving.
*Extracts from the article, “The Original Coach Horse—The Cleveland Bay,” by Joanna Dorman (Driving Digest Magazine, May/June 1983)
Credit: Cleveland Bay Horse Society of North America