THE CLEVELAND BAY HORSE

The Cleveland Bay is, and has been, throughout history a multi purpose horse.

Before the dawn of the railways they were used as packhorses. These packhorses were commonly known as Chapman horses and were known to have great stamina over long distances. The Cleveland Bay was also used as a general purpose agricultural horse.

By 1787 Englishman were living in a different world as far as transport was concerned. The coach from London to York that had taken four days, now took twenty four hours. It was about this time that the Yorkshire Coach Horse came in to being. This was not a breed but a cross, usually a TB/Cleveland stallion on a Cleveland Bay mare. The demand for coach horses at this time was enormous.

Show jumping began in the second half of the Victorian era. The top performers in those days were two mares one 'Star' a pure Cleveland Bay is in the female line of a mare owned by Beamish Museum , the other Fanny Drape was by a Cleveland Bay stallion. At the Cleveland show at Middlesbourgh in 1869 'Star' gave a solo exhibition clearing a bar estimated to be 7 1/2ft.

The modern Cleveland Bay is a Rare Breed classified as a category one species having on average less than 50 pure foals registered each year.

Many successful event horses, show jumpers and dressage horses posses Cleveland Bay blood, the usual cross being a TB cross Cleveland Bay.