Clydesdale Horse

The breed

Clydesdale horses are strong carthorses, which were bred locally in Scotland during the 18th and 19th century.
They are closely related to Shire horses. In order to improve their genes, Clydesdale horses were continuously
interbred with Shire horses.

Clydesdale horses are slightly lighter (a maximum of 1,000 kg) and slightly smaller with a wither height of
between 1.63m and 1.93m. Similar to Shire horses, their four feet are often white and they have a wide blaze.

Clydesdale horses are excellent draught horses and demonstrate similar character traits to Shire horses.
Between the end of the 19th century and the Second World War, Scottish emigrants exported a large number
of these animals all over the world. Now, the USA and Canada are the main breeding areas.

The breed gained world fame through Mr. Anheuser-Busch, a brewer who had represented them as draught
horses pulling his beer carriage in his advertisements for “Budweiser”, a beer brand.

Today, there are two different kinds of Clydesdale horses. The Scottish one, which is traditionally of sturdy
build and whose legs are not quite that long and the Canadian-US-American one, which is “more modern”,
notably of a taller stature and which seems to be more graceful.