Bay Haven Farm, LLC

A Heritage Breeds Farm   -   Round Hill, Virginia

Home of OldDominion Stud & Practically Country

Copyright © 2012 Bay Haven Farm, LLC  | All rights reserved

Cleveland Bay Horses - Anatolian Shepherd Dogs - Corriedale Sheep - Berkshire Pigs - Large Black Hogs - Pure Spanish Goats

About the Cleveland Bay Breed

Cleveland Bay Horses...Critically Endangered. 

It is estimated that there are less than 800 pure bred Cleveland Bay horses living worldwide.

During the years of 1996 through 2000 (a five (5) year time period) there were a total of 291 pure bred registrations worldwide.   132 males and 159 females made up the 291 total number.  During this 5 year time period only 25 of those 291 registrations were North American born Cleveland Bays.  This is an average of 5 pure breds born in North America (United States & Canada) each year during this time.

The following five (5) years; 2001 through 2006 marked a noticeable decline.  During this time only 244 pure breds were registered. (136 males and 109 females).  However, on a positive note registration numbers for the year 2006 there were 75 pure bred foals (36 males and 39 females).  The year 2007 followed suit with registration numbers also accounted for 75 pure bred foals. (41 males and 34 females.

According the the CBHS there are currently less than 250 pure bred Cleveland Bay mares of breeding age throughout the world today.

The same 2007 census data accounts for 462 pure bred mares in the UK and 19 in Australia.  There are a grand total of 81 pure bred breeding stallions in the population.  Twenty-six (26) of these are residents of North America.  The remainder fall in the UK (41 stallions), Holland (1 stallion), Japan (1 stallion), Australia (7 stallions) and France (1 stallion).

A Brief History of the Cleveland Bay

The Cleveland Bay, originally called the Chapman horse for the traveling salesmen that used them, is England’s oldest and only native Warmblood breed of horse.  The Cleveland Bay’s origins can be raced back to the middle ages in the Cleveland district of north Yorkshire where a race of clean legged bay colored horses were the general purpose horses of their time.  These native horses were expected to be able to work all week in the fields or under pack, be ridden in the hunt and be driven to church on Sunday all without coming up lame or requiring special care.  This demanding environment produced a horse that was sound, with great stamina, a calm disposition and was an ‘easy keeper’.  The qualities that were important to the people of Yorkshire are also those that make the modern Cleveland Bay the all around performer that it is today.

During the early 1800’s, the Cleveland Bay continued to be used and improved as a coach horse.  However as the use of railroads increased as a mode of travel the use of the coaches and coach horses for a long distance travel declined.  The result was a decline in the Cleveland Bay population to the point where the breed was in serious danger of becoming extinct.

Emperor Wood Cut (print left) - The Coach Horse (print right)

By the middle of the 1800’s a number of things happened in the United States to improve the popularity of the Cleveland Bay.  During the 1850’s, a Cleveland Bay stallion named Scrivington was imported from Great Britain by a Virginia gentleman named Colonel Dulany to his Virginia plantation Welbourne.  Mr. Dulany’s goal was to use Scrivington to improve the quality of his horses.  As a means of showcasing the quality of Scrivington’s foals, Mr. Dulany and other like-minded Virginians organized the Upperville Colt & Horse Show.  That horse show organized by Mr. Dulany in the 1850’s continues to be held under the same oak trees in Upperville, Virginia that witnessed the first Upperville Colt & Horse Show.  It was the first livestock show that was designed to be only for horses and it now lays claim to the title of the oldest horse show in the United States.

Over the next few decades literally thousands of horses with Cleveland Bay blood were exported to the United States.  It is during this time that Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show were touring the United States and Europe.  Buffalo Bill used a team of Cleveland Bay Stallions in his Wild West Show giving a further boost to Cleveland Bay popularity in the United States.

By this time, the Cleveland Bay stallion’s ability to pass on its stamina, temperament and soundness had become well known in the horse world.  To the point where the Cleveland Bay was used by the US Calvary in their breeding programs.  In addition, Cleveland blood can be found in such uniquely American breeds as the Morgan, Standardbred and Quarter Horse.  In Europe, many Warmblood horses can trace their ancestry to the Cleveland Bay. The most notable example of this is the use of the Cleveland Bays to improve the Oldenburg breed.

By the early 1900’s the breed was once more in decline.  The was made worse when WWI broke out as the Cleveland Bay was sought after as artillery horses.  The very qualities that exemplify the Cleveland nearly cost the breed its very existence as many Clevelands were lost on the battlefields of France very nearly sealing the breed’s fate.  The breed numbers, now severely depleted by WWI, did not have a chance to recover by the time WWII erupted in Europe.

By the early 1900’s the breed was once more in decline.  The was made worse when WWI broke out as the Cleveland Bay was sought after as artillery horses.  The very qualities that exemplify the Cleveland nearly cost the breed its very existence as many Clevelands were lost on the battlefields of France very nearly sealing the breed’s fate.  The breed numbers, now severely depleted by WWI, did not have a chance to recover by the time WWII erupted in Europe. (Photo above from “Cleveland Bay Horses” by Anthony Dent)

By the 1960’s there were only 5 mature stallions left in the UK and not many more mares with which to rebuild the breed.  One of the remaining pure bred Cleveland Bay stallions, Mulgrave Supreme, was earmarked for export to the United States when Her Majesty the Queen stepped in and purchased him.  Her Majesty’s Grandfather had been a breeder of Cleveland Bays in the 1920’s and the queen stepped in at a critical moment in the breed’s history to give the breed a much needed boost.  Her Majesty has been a patron of the breed ever since then.

Her Majesty made Mulgrave Supreme available at public stud and the breed suddenly found a new popularity with the English public.  Over the following 10 years, stallion numbers rose dramatically.  Mulgrave Supreme became a household name in the horse world with many successful offspring competing in all disciplines including driving, dressage and show jumping.  Several of these offspring competed at Olympic levels in addition to being ridden for pleasure, hunting, eventing, or driving.

The current state of the breed is improving but the Cleveland Bay is listed as Critical by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.  As of December 2010 it is estimated there are less than 800 pure bred Cleveland Bay horses in the world.  As a comparison, there are approximately 1600 Giant Pandas in the wild and 7000 Snow Leopards.

Breed Standard

Height: 16.0 hh to 16.2 hh, but height should not disqualify an otherwise good sort.

Color:  Cleveland Bays must be bay with black points, i.e. black legs, black mane and black tail.  Gray hairs in the mane and tail do not disqualify.  These have long been recognized as a feature in certain strains of pure Cleveland Blood.  White is not admissible  beyond a white star on the forehead.  Legs which are bay or red below the knees and hocks do not disqualify but are faulty as a color.

Body:  The body should be wide and deep. The back should not be too long and should be strong with muscular loins.  The shoulder should be sloping, deep and muscular.  The quarters should be level, powerful, long and oval, the tail springing well from the quarters.

Head & Neck: The head characteristics of the breed should be bold and not too small.  It should be well carried on a long lean neck.

Eyes: Eyes should be large, well set and kindly in expression.

Ears:  Ears tend to be large and fine.

Legs:  Arms and thighs and second thighs should be muscular.  The knees and hocks should be large and well closed.  There should be 9” upwards of good flat bone below the knee measured at the narrowest point on a tight tape.  The pasterns should be strong and sloping but not too long.  The legs should be clear of superfluous hair and as clean and hard as possible.

Feet:  One of the most important features of the breed; the feet must be of the best and blue in color.  Feet that are shallow or narrow are undesirable.

Action:  Action must be true, straight and free.  High action is not characteristic of the breed.  The Cleveland which moves well and which is full of courage will move freely from the shoulder and will flex his 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.

* The above statistics were updated as of December 2010