RARE BREEDS TRUST OF AUSTRALIA
powered by TidyHQHorse : Cleveland Bay
Horse : Cleveland Bay
Country of Origin
England, United Kingdom
Australian Status
International Status
In its home country of the UK, the Cleveland Bay is listed as CRITICAL with only 60 mares.
Worldwide it is currently the equine breed at highest risk of extinction.
Uses
Packing, harness, jumping, hunting, showing, dressage, eventing, endurance, hacking.
Breed traits
- Powerful, active horses suited to a wide range of use.
- All bay, black points.
- Clean legs.
- Height 16 - 16.2hh.
- The only white permitted is a small star. Some grey hairs in mane and tail are permitted.
- Good feet are a pride of the breed.
- Good bone is important - 9 inches of bone should be seen.
- Straight, sometimes convex nose.
- Action is straight and true, not high.
History
The Cleveland Bay was originally bred in the Cleveland area of Yorkshire for packing and called Chapman's Travelling Pack Horses - Chapmen were salesmen. They were later used to breed excellent coach horses, the Yorkshire Coacher.
The Cleveland Bay is recorded from the 17th century but is a much older breed and is England's oldest recorded horse breed. The studbook society for the Cleveland Bay started in 1884.
The Cleveland Bay was popular during horse days in America and Australia as well as Britain. Like many other breeds its numbers dropped dramatically between the World Wars and following WW2. It looked as if the Cleveland Bay might in fact die out until Queen Elizabeth II stepped in and bought a colt and stood him at public stud. Her husband, Prince Philip used them for driving. A resurgence in their popularity followed.
History in Australia
The earliest record is in 1828 but the breed would have arrived earlier. For example, the Australian Agricultural Company alone had 19 imported and 9 colonial bred Clevelands in 1830. They arrived continuously throughout the high point of Australia’s early horse breeding days prior to mechanisation, disappearing when horse used vanished. The Cleveland Bay contributed to the development of the Waler and Thoroughbred in Australia. In the late twentieth century they were imported again from England and a studbook started in 1975.
Breed Organisation
The Cleveland Bay Society of Australia, studbook started 1975 The Cleveland Bay Horse Society of Australasia
Australian Population
2020: 5 breeding aged mares, with 6 mares in total and 3 fillies. 4 stallions and 5 geldings, with 2 purebred foals expected for 2020. Many thanks to Brenda Boaden for supplying with the numbers for 2020.
2022: Mares 4; Stallions 4 (est); Geldings 5 . See below for further information on 2022 animals.
2025: Mares 4
Photo credits
Tregoyd Topper, owned by Brenda Boaden of Ferndale Springs stud and used with her kind permission.
Further information on 2022 Cleveland Bays
Brenda Boaden’s beautiful stallion Tregoyd Topper, of impeccable temperament, sadly died early in 2022, and in May her mares were sent to Alex Campbell in New Zealand. This marked the end of a tremendous era in Australia of keeping the breed alive. In January 2022 the mare Ferndale Springs Lotus went to NZ, she was in foal to Penrhyn Ps; at that stage to be the only purebred in NZ.
Mares: Earlswood Fedora (Flora) by Tregoyd Topper. Ferndale Springs Margaret. Filly from Ferndale Springs Margaret by St Patrick.
Stallions: St. Patrick by Tregoyd Topper. Straws of these stallions are available: Tregoyd Topper, Penrhyn Ps, Arena Big Ben, Texlea Saint Oliver and Pembridge Midshipman. See this website, Sporthorse Data, for details of straws available and they are also available from Brenda's stud Ferndale Springs, in W.A. Straws also available for Silverfern Blue Jeans
Geldings: Ferndale Springs St James by Tregoyd Topper. Alabai Mulberry Crumpet (from Miss Chance by Weatherby Barry Crump) - straws collected by gelding, were available from Ferndale Springs.
Also to NZ circa 2014 went the stallion Silverfern Blue Jeans (by Bantry Bere out of Impeccable Emily), his straws available 2022 at Serendipity Equine, Nelson, NZ.
Ferndale Springs Shamrock, Ferndale Springs Topsy, Sunnyvale Bonny Bay, Tregoyd Gizelle and Ferndale Springs I sold to New Zealand from Brenda May 2022. Four mares in foal, one filly; four of them by Tregoyd Topper. Details:
Ferndale Springs Isolde 1yr filly, by Pembridge Midshipman. A rising superstar this young filly, what a journey for never having been floated before.
Tregoyd Gizelle (ex imported from Wales) in foal to Texlea St Oliver
Ferndale Springs Topsy in foal to Penrhyn PS
Sunnyvale Bonny Bay in foal to Arena Big Ben. Arena Big Ben is a sire owned by the King Of Pakistan
Ferndale Springs Shamrock in foal to Arena Big Ben.
Page by Janet Lane.
Updated March 2022.
Updated and revised January 2026
