Misplaced Pages

Flemish Horse

Conservation status	DAD-IS (2024): at risk/critical
Other names	Vlaams Paard Cheval flamand Flamand Gros trait du Hainaut Flanders Horse
Country of origin	Belgium
Traits
Height	1.65–1.75 m
Colour	usually flaxen chestnut
Equus ferus caballus

The Flemish Horse, Dutch: Vlaams Paard, French: Cheval Flamand, is a Belgian breed of heavy draught horse. It originates in – and is named for – Flanders, the northern part of Belgium, where its history goes back to Mediaeval times. In the late nineteenth century it was merged with the other heavy horses of Belgium into the Belgian Draught.

It was re-created in the late twentieth century and recognised as a breed in 2005. In the twenty-first century it is an endangered breed, with fewer than a hundred living animals.

History

The heavy horses of Flanders became famous in Mediaeval times. They were among the gifts sent by Charlemagne to the Abbasid caliph Haroun ar-Rashid in 807.

The breed became extinct in the nineteenth century, when it was merged with the Brabant to create the Belgian Draught. From about 1993 it was recreated, partly from stock kept by Amish people in the United States. A breed association, Het Vlaams Paard, was formed in 1999. In 2005 the breed was officially approved by the Flemish government, and the breed association authorised to manage the stud-book.

It is an endangered breed. In 2013 total numbers were about 100 head, with about 35 brood mares and 5 stallions.

Characteristics

The Vlaams Paard, like several other draught breeds with Belgian Draught ancestry, may be affected by junctional epidermolysis bullosa. Unlike the Belgian Draught, it is not susceptible to chronic progressive lymphoedema.

References

1. ^ Breed data sheet: Vlaamse Paard / Belgium (Horse). Domestic Animal Diversity Information System of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Accessed April 2019.
2. Élise Rousseau, Yann Le Bris, Teresa Lavender Fagan (2017). Horses of the World. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 9780691167206.
3. Hynderick de Theulegoet (1911). Monographie du cheval de trait belge (in French). Bruxelles: Librairie nationale d'art et d'histoire.
4. Histoire (in French). Het Vlaams Paard. Archived 22 September 2023.
5. Y. Leterme (29 July 2005). 21 Juin 2005 - Arrêté ministériel portant agrément de l'a.s.b.l. "Vlaams Paard" (in French). Le Moniteur Belge. Accessed June 2019.
6. Valerie Porter, Lawrence Alderson, Stephen J.G. Hall, D. Phillip Sponenberg (2016). Mason's World Encyclopedia of Livestock Breeds and Breeding (sixth edition). Wallingford: CABI. ISBN 9781780647944.
7. John D. Baird, Lee V. Millon, Susan Dileanis, M. Cecilia T. Penedo, Alexandra Charlesworth, Flavia Spirito, Guerrino Meneguzzi (2003). Junctional epidermolysis bullosa in Belgian draft horses. Proceedings of the American Association of Equine Practitioners 49: 122–126. Archived 26 June 2019.
8. Kirsten De Keyser, Steven Janssens, Nadine Buys (2015). Chronic progressive lymphoedema in draught horses. Equine Veterinary Journal 47 (3): 260–266. ISSN 0425-1644. doi:10.1111/evj.122561.

• Horse breeds
• Horse breeds originating in Belgium