Cleveland Bay

The Cleveland Bay is a Yorkshire horse, descended from the Chapman Horse, a pack animal now extinct that took its name from the chapmen, the traveling salesmen who used it in the Yorkshire dales. Bay was always the preferred color.

Barb horses landing at Whitby in the 1600s and 1700s, the same imports that went into the Thoroughbred, were crossed onto the Chapman stock. Breeders selected for strength, speed, soundness and stamina, because the job was hauling goods long distances, working a farm, and being ridden over rough ground. Recent genetic work suggests a link to the Turkomen horses behind the Akhal-Teke.

The breed reached its modern form by 1800. Cleveland is the Yorkshire vale it comes from, and bay is the color: reddish brown with black points. It is always bay.

The British society formed in 1884. Americans had been importing since the early 1800s, and Colonel Richard Dulaney of Virginia started the Upperville Colt and Horse Show in 1884 to show his off. It still runs, and still has a Cleveland Bay class. The American society followed in 1885 and had registered over 2,000 horses by 1907.

They are intelligent, gentle and easy to train, and the crosses make good sport horses.