Ardennes

Origin: France

Color: Bay, roan, or chestnut. All colors permitted, except part-colored (piebald/skewbald). No white markings permitted on head in stallions. In mares a little white below fetlock is allowed (but not encouraged), nowhere else except on head.

Avg Height: 14.2 to 16.3 hh

Avg Weight: 1,540 to 2,200 lbs

Build: Essentially a compact heavy draught breed, possessing a great muscular development combined with style and activity. Good posture and conformation, with plenty of quality bone, should give an impression of balanced strength and power. Deep, compact, heavily muscled body and short, very hard, lightly feathered legs. Intelligent expression, flat nose. Pronounced eye sockets, large and docile eyes. Ears pointing forwards. Flat or concave forehead. Large well-opened nostrils. Must avoid long heavy heads, drooping lips, misshapen ears, and domed foreheads. Stocky, expressing mass, density and power. Chest ample and deep, close to the ground. Back and loins powerful and well supported. Haunches large and wide, hindquarters long and well muscled, low set tails are common but not to be encouraged.

Temperament: Wonderfully good tempered, exceptionally calm, gentle and docile.

Main use: Because of its compact, stocky, solid shape and its gentle docile nature, it is still used for draught for various purposes (for harvesting hay, in vineyards, surface-clearing, hauling timber...) or for horse-drawn tourism. Though for the most part, it is raised for the European meat market.

Special abilities: One of the most hardy of the heavy draft breeds. Quick, vigorous action, and great stamina.

History: As the Arab is to light horses, the Ardennes is to heavy horses. It is estimated that these horses have been around for around 15,000 years, since the last ice age. The ancestors of the Ardennais were known some 2000 years ago, probably being the descendants of the snub-nosed, prehistoric horse whose remains have been found at Solutré. Before the 19th century, however, the Ardennes horses were not as tall or as heavy, and it was used for mostly riding and light draft work. Crosses made to the Arabian and Thoroughbred at the beginning of the 19th Century, as well as those made to the Percheron and Boulonnais, were not always very successful. From these crosses came three types of Ardennes: The old-type Ardennes, which stand at about 15 hh, the Trait du Nord which is bigger due to Brabant breeding, and the Auxois. The basic Ardennes, the French Ardennais, was thought to be descended from a type of horse described by Julius Caesar in his De Bello Gallico, and it may even have directly descended from the Solutré horse. Julius Caesar (100 - 44 BC) declares in his commentaries that "the horses of the second Belgium" are "rustic, hard and tireless" and he recommended their use "in heavy cavalry work". All of the Roman emperors after him used the breed, to good effect. Moving through into the 17th and 18th centuries the royal armies obtained a great number of remounts for their cavalry from the Ardennes region. These horses were small but noted for their hardiness, sobriety and endurance. It is said that Napoleon owed his return to Niemen to his Ardennes cavalry. Having withstood the cold and privations that had destroyed over 10,00 horses, they were harnessed to the supply corps wagons to pull them through axle deep mud and snow, and many of the Ardennais horses brought back Napoleon's wagons from this disastrous campaign. The Russian Ardennais is probably descended from horses left behind in the retreat.