Introduce Your Drafties!

Having a draft horse is one of my dreams :) In Czech we have two "national" draft breeds (hope to translate their names intelligibly) - Czech-moravian belgian draft (Českomoravský belgik) and Silesian noriker (Slezský norik). Recently I've visited the most significant Czech stud farms (in Tlumačov) and the director prepared a presentation of the best stallions for us, of course I made some photos ;)

Silesian noriker stallion Biskup


Czech-moravian belgian draft Agar



And one more famous Czech horse breed (protected by UNESCO as a national heritage) - kladruber horse (Starokladrubský kůň), used as a ceremonial carosier (that means a "light" draft horse, don´t know whether you use the term is English, too).

White kladruber stallion Generalissimus Ravela XLI


So tell me - have you ever at least heard of kladrubers? :)

Never heard of them...but MY GOD are they gorgeous!

In Czech we also have draft horse competitions - I don't know how to translate the name of the first discipline "formanská jízda" - literally it's a "farmers ride". It's a competition resembling to a driving marathon - pair of draft horses pull a four-wheeled carriage as fast as they can and have to make it through some obstacles, made of poles, bridges, watter crossing and such. The second discipline is a log pull - one horse has to pull a long heavy log in a given track (with slalom and backing up). Third is a weight pulling - one horse or pair has to pull a sledge with increasing weight on it. The last competition is a ploughing (with pair of horses; judge evaluates quality of the furrow, its depth, regularity etc.).
Do you have some draft horse competitions in US and abroad in general? In central Europe (Czech, Slovakia, Hungary...) it´s a common thing.

An old Chek told me that the Check light draft was the forerunner of the Lippizaner. I don't know about that but it was a Chek light draft that died just a few years ago at age 52.

Yes I have heard of Kladruber's, but that's because I have very old horse breeds of the world books that I poured through as a child. "white" horses always stood out to me as a child.

They would consider them a carriage type. Heavy harness horse I would think. Lovely I say. But then I like hefty horses.

The heavier drafts are just beautiful.

To my knowledge, very few draft horses participate in these types of competitions. Many don't want their horses to do anything faster than a trot in the harness. At one of our local shows, we do have a farm cart class where we are required to show our horses at both walk, and trot in almost a mini-dressage test of sorts. Showing how well they control. As well as being able to both gee and haw. My one mare is great at this and I took her single in my farm/training cart. She sidepasses both directions exceptionally well. She's also very responsive. She'll canter in harness, but don't let my dad know that. He'd have a fit.

We do have horse pulling here in the US. It can usually be found at any draft horse related event, as well as county fair's. Mostly American Belgian's are used, however on occasion you'll see crossbreds or other draft breeds. The Belgians have maintained lines that are very heavy in body and mass, they market them exactly for horse pulling.


We do also have this, and I enjoy watching them. Sometimes we also have plow days, no judging, where people from all over will bring teams and work a field as a group effort.

The kladruber looks to have a very similar build to the irish draft but the head looks quite different. The ID's have changed an awful lot over the years and much lighter than they used to be to make them more useable as competition/riding horses but they are still a wonderful breed.

Our Irish Draft, she is a 15.2 to her low withers but stands level to a 16 hand with normal withers. Taken on our last ride in England before we moved to the US - she is not slow but the words on the tabard aimed at drivers was funny when read the wrong way

Someone else here could maybe tell if we have such competitions in the US? I haven't heard of them, just shows for driving carriages. Sounds interesting....but I would be a nervous wreck the whole time watching!

Yep, right :) In Lippizaners there are two important bloodlines founded by kladruber stallions - Maestoso and Favory. The breeds are quite similar, difference is in color (Lippizaners mostly white, minority brown or black, Kladrubers are white or black - each type has its own stud; sometimes chestnut is born, but these horses are not used in breeding). The second difference is in shape of their heads - Kladrubers have the typical Roman nose (each bloodline has a specific shape) that is not so common is Lippizaners. Also Lippizaners are used more under saddle (classical spanish dressage), Kladrubers more as a carriage horses, even in a driving competitions.
There is a representative 16-horse team of white kladrubers (they even tried 22 horses but I couldn't find a pic).


And a black kladruber stallion - something for the "friesian-lovers". Personally I like the black kladrubers more.