Draught Horses

See also:

Shire Horses | The Suffolk Punch | The Clydesdale

The Cleveland | The Percheron | Dales and Fell Ponies

Throughout the centuries the horse has been indispensable to man. In peace and war the horse has provided transport for the individual and power for pulling a multitude of differing vehicles.

Its history and development is of considerable interest during its evolution to the present day. The earliest animals migrated across Asia and Europe.

In North America the early horse became extinct, later to be reintroduced by the Spaniards. The wild mustangs were their descendants, that is to say, feral not indigenous. Of the European wild horses, the Tarpan was a native of the Carpathian Mountains, the Mongolian horse of the Steppes, and possibly the Arab of the Arabian Deserts.

In Britain, the western coastline was more extensive and connected to Brittany before the cutting of the English Channel at the end of the Ice Age. Exmoors and Shetlands can both be considered to be native stock before this time.

Cleveland Bays and Suffolk Punches can lay claim to ancient natural pure line breeding, but the other British breeds have been established by man’s efforts with imported continental stock. In the case of the heavy horses, the animals concerned were Jutlands, Fresians, Flemish, the Normans and Andalucians.

For more detail on the selected breeds listed above, please consult the section.