Cleveland Bay
The Cleveland Bay is the oldest established breed of English Horse.
In 1884, the Cleveland Bay Horse Society of Great Britain published the first
volume of its Stud Book containing stallions and mares scrupulously selected for
purity of blood, many of whose pedigrees traced back over a century. Since that
date, the breed has been maintained free of outcrosses. In consequence,
Cleveland Bays stamp their get with remarkable uniformity of size, conformation,
soundness, stamina, disposition and color.
The Cleveland Bay is unique in its carefully maintained purity. While the
warmbloods of France, Germany, Sweden, Poland, Hungary and other European
countries have produced a number of good individuals, their pedigrees are
riddled with recent Thoroughbred, Arabian and other outcrosses. Registration in
their studbooks carries with it no guarantee or even probability that their
offspring will inherit their excellence with any consistency.
North Yorkshire, England, is famous as the cradle of two of the worlds leading
breeds of horses, the Thoroughbred and the Cleveland Bay. In its fertile Vale of
Bedale, 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.