Cleveland Bays are a registered
and long-established breed, more popular now than they have been
for a hundred years. The breed was originally created in the north-east
of England as a good, reliable mount and a tough all-rounder capable
of pulling heavy loads. They were at their most popular in Victorian
times, when they were often used as carriage horses because they
were strong and ‘steady’, as well as uniform in colour.
A Cleveland
Bay stud was founded on the Cholderton Estate by its owner –
Henry Charles Stephens – in the 1880s, and many Cleveland
Bays were reared to work on the Estate, for sale in the UK and
for export. Two Clevelands, Cholderton Rex and Cholderton Robert,
were sold to the royal family in 1946, and they pulled carriages
bearing members of the royal family and notable public figures
on many state occasions.
But by the
1970s Cleveland Bays had fallen completely out of fashion. Only
four stallions were left in the world. Two of these were at Cholderton,
and it is these stallions that kept the breed alive. Since they
had no economic value then, it was only affection for the breed
that made Captain L Edmunds (Henry Edmunds’ father) keep
them going.
It was fortunate
he did, as today the breed is once again highly sought after,
with much of the interest coming from the USA. Horse sales to
the USA are now a regular contributor to the Estate’s finances,
to the extent that two people are employed on a regular basis
as grooms.
Horse ‘farming’
fits in well with Cholderton’s other agricultural regimes,
where grass leys and re-seeded permanent grasslands form part
of the overall land use strategy. As an added benefit, horses
can be good for some wildlife; for example, their manure attracts
insects that are preyed upon by the Estate’s healthy bat
population.
