Clydesdale Horse

Origin: Scotland – Lanarkshire.

Height: Average 16.2hh.

Color: Bay, brown, black, roan, with much white on the face and legs and sometimes on the body. Bay and brown are the commonest colors. Character: Active, brave, and friendly.

Physique: Broad, flat face, neither dished nor Roman, wide muzzle with large nostrils, clear, intelligent eyes. Long, well-arched neck, high withers; short, strong back setting into heavily-muscled hindquarters. The forelegs are straight and directly under the shoulder, and the hind legs are also straight. Many feathers, cover long pasterns and hard feet. Action straight with a long, free stride, feet picked up cleanly with the inside of every hoof visible to anyone walking behind. Active movers for their bulk.

Clydesdales originate from Lanarkshire, the Lowland county through ”Which the Clyde runs (the old name for Lanarkshire was Clydesdale). In the mid-18th century development of Lanarkshire, coalfields led to a great improvement in road surfaces so that shoulder haulage by horses could be substituted for pack carrying. Local farmers, anxious to profit from the need for heavier, stronger horses to pull the loads, crossed their hardy native Mares with much heavier Flemish stallions, which were imported for this purpose. They named the result Clydesdale.

The new breed quickly became popular, and has been a regular export from the British Isles for more than a century, going wherever horses were required for haulage. In 1911 a Clydesdale established a British record for heavy horse prices when the stallion Baron of Buchlyvie was sold at auction for? 9,500.

See more: Cleveland Bay Horse