Clydesdale Horse

From Scottish Farms to the White House

The Clydesdale (Equus caballus) is a draft horse breed from Lanarkshire, Scotland, named after the River Clyde. In the mid-1700s, native Lanarkshire horses were bred with Flemish stallions to make them bigger and heavier. The first of those stallions was imported by the Sixth Duke of Hamilton, who let his tenants use it free of charge. The Clydesdale Horse Society formed in 1877, and the breed’s registry records go back to the 1830s. The breed reached North America in the 1840s. Between 1884 and 1945, the society issued 20,183 export certificates, for horses bound as far as Russia and South America.

In the 1930s, Anheuser-Busch began using a hitch of Clydesdales to celebrate the end of Prohibition. The hitch was an instant sensation when it delivered the first post-Prohibition beer to the White House. The company has kept a Clydesdale breeding program since 1953.

Built for the Job

An adult male stands 17 to 19 hands at the withers, about 1.7 to 1.9 meters, and averages 771 to 998 kilograms. Females are a little smaller, at 16 to 18 hands and 680 to 771 kilograms. Bred for hauling and farm work, the Clydesdale is an immensely strong, barrel-chested horse with long, well-muscled quarters. Its gait is distinctive: each hoof lifts cleanly off the ground, so the bottom of the foot shows from behind. Long white hair called “feather” grows on the ankles.

A Shoe Built for a Giant A full-grown Clydesdale’s horseshoe measures more than 51 centimeters end to end and weighs about 2.3 kilograms (5 pounds). That is more than twice as long and four times as heavy as a riding horse’s shoe.

A Gentle Giant

Despite its giant size, the Clydesdale has a laid-back, “happy” temperament, says The Livestock Conservancy. It calls the breed intelligent and easy to train, and a good family horse, even for beginners. Like other domestic horses, it grazes mainly on true grasses and is often fed grains such as oats, barley and corn, sometimes with vitamin and mineral supplements. Clydesdales generally live into their late teens to early twenties. The most common coats are bay and brown, though some may be gray, black or roan, and white markings on the face and legs are typical.

A Breed Worth Watching

During the Second World War, British farms had to produce as much as they could, and that took tractors: horses were replaced by machines. Breed numbers dwindled in the 1960s and early 1970s, and in 1975 the Rare Breeds Survival Trust rated the Clydesdale “vulnerable”. Numbers have grown over the years, and the rating is now “at risk”. In North America, numbers rose for decades, but a sharp decline began around 2010, prompted by an economic downturn across the horse market. The Livestock Conservancy, a US nonprofit, lists the Clydesdale as “Threatened” and estimates fewer than 5,000 worldwide.