The Cleveland Bay
BREED HISTORY
A Breed with English Heritage

The Cleveland Bay originates from Britain, in the Cleveland area of Northern Yorkshire and is the oldest of the indigenous breed of English  horses. Yorkshire is known as the source of two breeds, the Thoroughbred and the Cleveland Bay.  The Cleveland Bay evolved from crossing native bay colored mares with Oriental stallions during the 17th century.  Shaped by a harsh environment, a horse of durability, longevity and quiet disposition resulted.  These characteristics, combined with the uniformity of bay color, size and substance developed a versatile breed used as hunt horse, coach or pack horse and as an agricultural worker.  Originally known as the Chapman horse, after the salesmen who exclusively used Cleveland Bays as pack horses, the breed excelled as an all rounder.  During the peak of popularity, in the late 1880's the Cleveland Bay Horse Society of Great Britain published the first volume of its Stud Book which contained stallions and mares selected for the purity of blood.  During the 19th century, some Cleveland Bays were bred to thoroughbreds and produced the Yorkshire Coach Horse, a carriage horse with unmatched ability for speed, style and power.  With the advent of the mechanical age, the numbers of Cleveland Bays and Yorkshire Coach horses rapidly declined and were further decimated by their use as artillery horses during World War l.  

Wood cut of Emperor, a CB imported into Virginia by Hon Wm. C. Rives in 1852

The Cleveland Bay survived in the region of it's birthplace during these difficult times but in the 1960's only five or six mature stallions were found. Due to the foresight and determination of the Yorkshire admirers the breed has survived and numbers have grown.  The Queen became the Patron of the breed and the Royal Mews continues the tradition of using Cleveland Bays and crossbreds in ceremonial duties.  The Cleveland Bay has successfully been bred to thoroughbred types to produce outstanding performance horses known as Cleveland Bay sport horses in dressage, driving and jumping.  It is through these quality animals that breed recognition is becoming known.  With the increase of numbers of Cleveland Bay purebreds some are competing along with breeding duties.  Although listed as an endangered breed with less than 500 world wide, the Cleveland Bay lovers from Britain, North America, Japan, New Zealand and Australia are dedicated to the conservation of this unique horse. 

 - reproduced from CBHSNA website
with permission