Horse Pictures Images Wallpapers Photos 2013: Belgian Draft Horse Pictures Images Wallpapers Photos 2013

Monday 22 July 2013

Belgian Draft Horse Pictures Images Wallpapers Photos 2013

Belgian Draft Horse Pictures Biography

Source(Google.com)

Profile: The Belgian draft horse was developed in the fertile pastures of Belgium. It was also there that the forefather of all draft horses was first bred—a heavy black horse used as knights’ mounts called the Flemish. The Belgian draft horse developed from this horse and carries many characteristics of the Flemish even today. The Belgian was primarily used for farm work but also in cities to work alongside other draft breeds in warehouses, freight stations and fishing wharfs. In 1866, the first Belgian arrived on American soil. In 1885 men in Wabash, Ind., started a business importing Belgian stallions and selling them to horse breeders throughout the Midwest. Today, the horses are used for hobby and historical farming, forestry work and pleasure driving.

Characteristics: The Belgian is instantly recognized by its sorrel color, usually with a white mane and tail, white face markings and four white socks or stockings. Roan is also seen as well as the occasional throwback bay. The Belgian stands from 16 to 18 hands and can pull a wagonload of 6,000 to 8,000 pounds and work eight to 10 hours a day.

The Belgian is no "overnight success." Its popularity has been hard won over the last century on thousands of farms and ranches, in countless pulling contests and show rings, and on the streets of America with hitches pulling the freight wagons that once fed the people.

History shows that Belgians are the most direct lineal descendants of the "Great Horse" of medieval times.

The Belgian, as the name implies, is native to the country of Belgium. This little country is blessed with fertile soil and abundant rainfall providing the thrifty farmers of Belgium with the excellent pastures and the hay and grain necessary to develop a heavy, powerful breed of horse.

Belgium lies in the very center of that area of western Europe that gave rise to the large black horses known as Flemish horses and referred to as the “Great Horses” by medieval writers. They are the horses that carried armored knights into battle. Such horses known to exist in that part of Europe in the time of Caesar. They provided the genetic material from which nearly all the modern draft breeds are fashioned.

Stallions from Belgium were exported to many other parts of Europe as the need to produce larger animals of draft type for industrial and farm use was recognized. There was no need to import into Belgium for she was the "mother lode." It remained only for this ancestral home of the "great horse," by whatever name, to refine and fix the type of the genetic material she already had at hand.

The government of Belgium played a very energetic role in doing just that. A system of district shows culminating in the great National Show in Brussels, which served as an international showcase for the breed, was established. The prizes were generous. Inspection committees for stallions standing for public service were established.

The result was a rapid improvement into a fixed breed type as the draft horses of Belgium become regarded as a national heritage and, quite figuratively, a treasure. In 1891, for example, Belgium exported stallions for use in the government stables of Russia, Italy, Germany, France, and the old Austria-Hungary empire. The movement of horses out of Belgium for breeding purposes was tremendous in scope and financially rewarding for her breeder's decade after decade.

Belgian Draft Horse Pictures Images Wallpapers Photos 2013