By Linda Yaciw www.pris.bc.ca/horses
The ancestors of the Cleveland Bay, known as Chapman horses, can be traced to the selective breeding practices by a far-sighted Abbott in the Cleveland hills (North Yorkshire, England) in 1231, where they were kept as a breed apart. Over the centuries of breeding, only minimal additions of outside blood have been allowed, this being the Barb and some Andalusian, both from the mid 1500's to 1600's.
North Yorkshire is also the origin of the Thoroughbred. This county, from about 1660 to 1740, by breeding desert-bred imported Arabian stallions to native British race mares, the D'arcys of Sedbury, the Darleys of Aldby, and other breeders, evolved the race horse now known as the Thoroughbred.
Between 1707 and 1780, thirty-two of the first offspring of the Arabian foundation sires of the Thoroughbred (the original, oriental type) were bred to Cleveland Bay mares.
It is certain that after the 18th century there was no other infusion of alien blood. By then the Cleveland had emerged as an unmistakably fixed type.
A Rare Breed
The Cleveland Bay is on the endangered species list. In the 1950's there were only four purebred stallions and 5 of their offspring left in the entire world. Queen Elizabeth II intervened and purchased a stallion, Mulgrave Supreme, who had been destined for export to the United States. He was made available to breeders of pure and partbred Clevelands with enormous success. Within 15 years of his purchase, the number of stallions in Britain had increased to 36, sixteen of which were the progeny of Mulgrave Supreme.
There are approximately 500 Cleveland Bays worldwide. In 1996 there were 53 purebreds in North America (including five in Canada), and several thriving studs in New Zealand, Pakistan and Australia, and the bulk of them (350 or so) in Britain. There are several in Japan as well: the Imperial Household has been importing CBs for many years.
The Clevelands Bay is known as the great improver, or up-grader, of other breeds. They are in demand for cross-breeding with Thoroughbreds to produce 3-day eventers (dressage, field jumping, show jumping), jumpers and dressage horses. They are most well-known as coach horses.
During the war years, the Cleveland Bay was the favored breed for war use. The British War Office offered a premium to Cleveland Bay stallions: many Cleveland Bays and CB partbreds were produced and were put into war service. During the two World Wars, approximately 1.5 million horses died. (On the Western Front alone, the Allied losses were 48,000 horses each month of all breeds.) Many of those horses that died were Cleveland Bays. It is interesting to note that the British War Office only discontinued its premiums to stallions in 1960.
Thus the Cleveland Bay has three reasons for its decline, two of which are directly related to the popularity of the breed:
the age of mechanization depleted the breed, as with all other horse breeds,
the popularity of cross-breeding, as opposed to breeding pure
war service was a major factor in the breed's decline.
Today, the Cleveland Bay is still heavily cross-bred with Thoroughbreds, and to many other breeds to a lesser extent.
In the 1960's, the Cleveland Bay started to make its come-back when the age of the recreational horse took hold. In 1983, the first purebred Cleveland Bay foal was born in the United States, after a hiatus of 25 years. However, in 1994, only 22 purebred fillies were registered world-wide.
