10 x Draft Horse Breeds

Draft Horses have long been considered the farmer's greatest asset. Draft Horses are built to do the heavy work. They have a more aligned structure, their body length has been reduced and they have sturdy hindquarters, a heavy bone structure and most of the time their lower legs are feathered to protect them from being injured. They are one mass of power, horse power.

In the old days, humans domesticated horses to perform a variety of duties and as each duty required a certain type of horse. Horses that are used to drag logs out of the woods (dangerous job) need to have a calm and patient temperament, while horses that are used to drive carriages must be more energetic and fast. So in breeding the draft horses, a certain amount of selective breeding was used (to the possible extend) to develop the right horse for the right job.

People often refer to this type of horse as Draft Horse, Heavy Horse or Working Horse.

Today most of the heavy farm work has been taken over by big and heavy machinery, which have more horse powers and can do the jobs mutch faster. There are farmers though all over the world who still work with Draft Horses, think of the Amish people in the USA. In most countries today Draft Horses and Draft Horse crossbreds are often used for a multitude of purposes,like heavy load dragging competitions, ploughing competitions, shows, recreation, driving carriages.

Belgian Draft Horse (in French: Cheval de trait belge, in Flemish/Dutch: Belgisch Trekpaard) is considered one of the strongest of the Draft Horses, or Heavy Horses as they are referred to also. It originated in the Belgian Province Brabant, therefor this horse is also called Brabanth horse.

Originally it was used as a war horse (11th to 16th century) and later on it was used for farming, for pulling heavy weights in the cole mines and the harbor, for mail carriages and pulling ships along the shores of rivers and canals.

The official Belgian Pedigree book was established in 1886. Other countries showed great interest in this breed and in 1910 about 35.000 Belgian Draft Horses were exported to countries as America, Canada, Sweden, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, France and Russia in order to improve the local horse breeds.

Today the Belgian Draft Horse outnumbers all heavy breeds in the USA. You can find more information here Belgian Draft Horse Corporation of America

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The Clydesdale is named after the region of its origin, Clydesdale in Scotland. It is a tall breed but originally it was one of the smaller breeds of the draft horses, first recorded by the name of Clydesdale in 1826. The breed was developped by crossbreeding the imported Flemish stallions to the local mares.

Around 1970 the breed was close to extinction, but was rescued by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, who thought the breed was too vulnerable to let it disappear. Today the breed is still not out of the danger zone, but has increased in population numbers.

More information about this breed you can find here The Clydesdale Horse Society (UK) and here Clydesdale Breeders of the U.S.A.

The photo is of a special color variety of the breed, called the Budweiser Glydesdale Clicking the photo brings you to the Wikepedia page for more information.

The Friesian Horse is a Dutch breed, originating from the Province Friesland. The Friesian horse of today shows very similar characteristics of his ancient ancestors. They were known as far back as the 13th century. Sources reveal that this type of horse was already used by Romans as a war horse about 3000 years ago.

In the 19th century it was crossbred with trotters to get a lighter build horse for the trotter races and therefor it became less usable for the heavy farmwork. Around 1960 only about 1000 horses were registered in the pedigree book and then some breeders took it upon them to preserve this beautiful breed from extinction. In 2003 there were about 40.000 pure bred Friesian horses again.

You can find more information here Friesian Horse Association of North America

More beautiful posters can be found at Zazzle Draft Horse Posters

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The Percheron is an original French breed from the Perche valley in Northern France. It was already known in the 17th century, though it's not quite sure which breeds were its exact origins. They mostly come in a grey or black color and like so many of the heavy horses, they were used as war horses in the beginning, but their numbers declined after the World War II. It was saved from extinction and since 2009 about 2.500 Percherons are registered in the US alone. Also like many of the other draft horse breeds, the Percheron has been used in crossbreeding with lighter horse breeds to produce horses for riding, range work and driving. Though the American registry allows colors like roan, bay and chesnut, the registry in France and Britain, allow only the grey and black.

You can find more information about the Percheron here Percheron Horse Association of America

Credit photo: wikepedia

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The American Cream Draft is developped in the USA, to be specific: in Iowa and the registration of this breed was a fact in 1944. After a few years the number of horses decreased and the registration became inactive. It's been reactivated again in 1982, but the breed is still in the endangered zone.

It all began with Old Granny (born between 1900 and 1905) who had this special cream colored coat (produced by the Champagne gene), which aroused the attention of stock dealer Harry Lakin, who bought the mare at an auction and later on sold Old Granny to the Nelson Brothers Farm.

Photo credit and more information about this beautiful Draft Horse here American Cream Draft Horse Association and of course you can search for this breed on Wikepedia.

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The Sugarbush Draft Horsefound its origin in a original way. Back in the 1950's there was this carriage company called The Sugarbush Hitch Co and its owner, Everett Smith, thought it would be good advertisement if he came up with something which would distinguish his company from other companies in the same trade. The one thing a carriage company needs are horses. Not any horse is suitable to pull a carriage, so he began an experiment in crossbreeding his Percherons with the lighter horses who carried the loud Appaloose color. Not only he managed to develop a horse with a very special color, but he managed too to give the horse the heavy bone and social character it needed to do its job well.

Very soon people started to refer to these special colored horses as Sugarbush Drafts and the name stuck up to this day.

However, the breed never took a great flight and like so many breeds in the past, it is at the point of almost disappearing. As of 2010 there are only 12 Sugarbush Draft Horses left and only one couple is not related. The Foundation Registration made the questionable, but nescessary deciscion to open the studbook for crossbreeding in order to obtain more diversity in the genes, in hope to save this beautiful breed.

There is only one stallion left in the Foundation Registry Book and you can see him in action here: YouTube: Sugarbush Harley's Classic O

Photo credit and more information about the Sugarbush Draft you'll find here: The Sugarbush Draft Horse Registry

The Shire Horse is one of the largest Draft Horse Breeds and comes in many colors. The Shire Horse has been popular throughout the centuries for pulling the heavy brewery wagons and even up till today it's used for foresty, leisure and promotional activities.

In Brittain the British Shire Horse Society was founded in 1884, followed a year later by the American Shire Horse Association, when Shire horses were exported to the USA. Like so many horse breeds, their popularity fell with the introduction of mechanization, but began to increase a bit since the 1970s.

There are different rules for stallions and mares as it comes to the color. Stallions are only allowed to be black, grey or bay, mares could also be roan and other than in the UK, the USA mares are allowed to be chestnut.

The pulling capacity of the Shire Horse is enormous, back in 1924 a pair of Shires managed to exceed the reading on the dynameter, so they must have pulled a load of at least 45 tons or even more.

Photo credit and more information can be found here The American Shire Horse Association

The Haflinger, developped in Austria and northern Italy, is also known by the name Avelignese (its Italian name). It's a rather small but strong and elegant horse, originally developped for working in mountainous terrains. They can well stand the harsh weather.

The Haflinger today is mainly used for light draft, harness work, endurance riding,dressage and also therapeutic riding, but are also still used by the Austrian and German armies to work in rough terrain.The first horse to be cloned in 2003 was a Haflinger.

All Haflingers today can be traced back through seven stallion bloodlines to the Foundation Stallion Folie. Some recognize two types of Haflingers, one a more shorter and heavier type for draft work and another more lighter and taller type for pleasure riding, but you won't see both of them in one breed organisation.

You can find more information about the Haflinger here American Haflinger Registry

Photo: our own Haflinger Mingo at the age of about 32 years

The Norwegian Fjord Horse is one of the oldest breeds in the world and has been used as a farm horse. Today it's more in use as a harness horse or for riding, more a sports horse than a farm horse.

Excavations show that this horse type was selectively bred by the Vikings and it was already known at the end of the last ice age and that's pretty old. It has a very old history of pure breeding. The color is referred to as 'dun', which is a tan, gold or similar related shade with darker points and marks. Since 1922 five shades have been officially recognized in Norway. Brown dun, Red dun, grey, white dun and yellow dun, all with the distinguished dark brown or black markings.

You can find more information about the Fjord here Northeast Fjord Horse Association

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The Gypsy Horse is known by quite some names:

Gypsy Horse (USA), Irish Cob (Ireland/UK), Gypsy Cob/Vanner (USA), Colored Cob UK/Ireland), Tinker Horse (Europe)

A lot of names for a horse breed that originates from the UK and Ireland. They come in a variety of colors, but the piebald coloring the most common and is predominant. The Gypsy Cob was bred by the Romany to use as a wagon horse (wagons or caravans known as Vardos).
Besides the beautiful spotted pattern, they're wellknown for their abundant manes, tail and feathered legs.

It took a long time before an official Registry was founded, because breeders would keep the pedigrees of their horses secret within their families. The first Registry of this breed was founded in the USA as late as 1996 and today there are 3 different registry classifications, depending on the height of the horse. It took till 2004 that the breed became officially recognized by the United States Dressage Federation.

You can find more information about the Gypsy Horse here Gypsy Horse Registry of America

Photo credit: Flickr Nike 17