The Warmblood has been developed from breeds in Western Europe. Let's go right back to the 17th century and see what horses were being used for at that time.

Portable power

In the 17th century the horse was used for its strength. This included drafting, acting as transportation, participating in war as cavalry horses, officers' mounts and pulling artillery, providing power (hitched to provide rotary power for machinery such as milling grain) and for food production.

Each category had different physical and mental requirements. A horse that was well-suited to be a cavalry mount, would not be suited to pull a wagon or plough. Each job required a different combination of body type and personality. Within each category there was a wide range of horses from a few very good, very expensive, to many solid, medium- priced, to poor quality, very cheap.

On the battlefield

War horses came in several types. There was the heavy cavalry horse, the light cavalry horse, the officer's horse, and the artillery horse. Again, those horses best suited to each category, differed in body type and personality. All war horses, regardless of use, had to be able to learn to tolerate the battlefield, or else they had a very short career.

The medieval knight's destrier or great horse, disappeared from the battlefield along with the full suits of armour because of changes in warfare.

The destrier type still hangs on, but is now seen mostly in the grand equestrian schools such as the Spanish Riding School and the Cadre Noir at Saumur in France. The various movements, such as the "airs above the ground", once used in battle, are now reduced to equestrian exercises.

The heavy cavalry horse is a sturdy animal, similar to today's Irish Draft horse. This troop horse can carry the heavier armoured soldier in grand charges against the enemy line, invoking terror in those facing his charge. This is the horse of close order formations and close quarter engagements. He has to be strong enough to cart his soldier to and from battle as well.

The light cavalry horse is a speedier horse; his soldier had less armour, and the tactics used are more hit-and-run or pursuit of routed troops. In Poland, they have been breeding Arabians since the 12th century and intermixing them with native light horses, to produce an ideal light cavalry horse. All across Europe, horse breeders were mixing various types in efforts to attain these ideal cavalry horses. One result of this became the English Thoroughbred.

Artillery horses are somewhere between the heavy cavalry and medium draft horses. Artillery in the 17th century was heavy and it moved slowly.

Speedy, comfortable transport

Horses used for transportation could be generally assigned to two categories – speed and comfort. The former were used to speed mail and messages across the country. The comfort horses are for pleasure and distance riding. These horses had soft, easy-to-ride gaits, much appreciated by those who rode long distances.

Draft horses could be light, medium, or heavy. Light drafts pulled two-wheeled carts to haul produce or people from the farm or around the city. Medium draft horses would be used in teams of two to eight to pull ploughs, harrows, and wagons on the farms. Heavy draft horses were needed to pull the mechanised farm equipment.

By the end of the First World War there was no place for most of the cavalry, as warfare became mechanised and, in time, so did farming.

These horses were moved over into the leisure and competition arenas. From there, as the disciplines of dressage and eventing evolved from military training into today's competitions and showjumping, these horses have been selected and bred to meet the needs of today's riders.

Breeds and types

Just like today, most 17th century breeders carefully selected both sire and dam, and kept records as to the animals used. The breeders had a specific conformation and temperament in mind as they selected and bred.

They did not place as great an importance on the origins of a horse, as they did on its physical and mental suitability. If the object was to breed large draft horses with feathers, then they selected the largest horses with draft type builds and feathers, and bred them together until they achieved a strain that bred true.

An example in point: An Oldenburg horse was a horse bred by Graf Johann XVI von Oldenburg or his son, Graf Anton Günther von Oldenburg. Graf Johann and Graf Anton Günther were breeding fancy carriage horses that could also be ridden. They selected those horses that most closely matched what they intended the end product to be, and bred them together. These horses were known as "Oldenburgs".

However, because Graf Anton Günther allowed tenants and others to breed their mares to his stallions, the term "Oldenburg" might also apply to animals that did not come from the Graf's breeding programme. The upshot was that if the horse met the criteria of an Oldenburg, it was acceptable to almost everyone as an Oldenburg.

Naturally those horses sold from the Graf's stables commanded the higher price. And just like today, some people undoubtedly got taken by smooth talking horse dealers into thinking that the Oldenburg they purchased, had come directly out of Graf Anton Günther's stables instead of a tenant's back pasture. And so enter the studbook!

Studbooks

Today, what we know as breeds, have studbooks and registries to control which animals can be called by the breed name. A studbook is a list of horses that meet the standards of the breed and are registered as that breed.

Very few Warmblood breeds are closed studbooks. The Trakhener is one and has an interesting history well worth looking up. With a closed studbook, the horse has to meet the breed standards to be accepted and registered, and cannot breed outside of its registered horses.

Some closed studbooks allow only certain coat colours. With Andalusians, only gray, black and bay are acceptable colours. Closed studbooks require an examination by a breed judge, before the horse can be registered.

The other option is a developing studbook. Most Warmblood studbooks are developing registries which allow you to breed to other selected registered breeds to achieve an end result.

One parent must be registered as a Warmblood, the other should be from a breed recognised as acceptable to that Warmblood society. If the horse meets the conformation and performance standards, it can be registered.

In Warmbloods, the largest use of outside breeds are Thoroughbreds (mostly in the German, Dutch, Belgian and Swedish studbooks) and Anglo Arabs (a speciality of the French studbook). French Anglo-Arabian is traced back to two stallions: Massoud (an Arabian) and Aslam (a Turkish horse). Imported from Syria, they were crossed with three imported English Thoroughbreds: Comus Mare, Daer and Selim Mare. Their three daughters, Clovis, Danae and Delphine, became the foundation stock of France's breeding programme.

The Thoroughbred was developed in England as a light cavalry and race horse. At its beginnings, the Thoroughbred was a type. When that type had reached a point where it was breeding true, the studbook was established and closed.

Today, the Thoroughbred is the best known example of a closed studbook. No Thoroughbred can be registered unless both of its parents are also registered Thoroughbreds. A Thoroughbred must be able to trace its ancestry back to the horses found in the GSB. The GSB was established and first printed in 1808. The GSB used private records to attempt to detail all the horses that deserved the name Thoroughbred.

Open or closed studbooks do have breed standards. Even when both the parents are registered members of the breed, if the offspring does not exhibit the desired traits, it cannot be registered.

This is very much the case with Warmbloods today. Extensive testing of stallions is required by the various studbooks and record-keeping of mare progeny.

Studbooks advise members which stallions they should use on which mares. Government funds are available to most of the large European Warmblood studbooks and much agricultural and scientific research is done.

"Breed the best to the best; hope for the best and cull the rest."