Not sure how high a level of competition you plan to event at, but there are Cleveland Bay crossbreds who are quite successful in jumping, Fox Hunting, Eventing, for AOs wanting to have a good time. Not everyone rides like Buck Davidson on the high powered upper level horses, so “kinder” horses to enjoy can be a direction to consider.
I am not that into Eventing, but like a horse who can jump a few jumps when needed, so always consider that in breeding horses. We breed for our own uses of Driving, but at times a horse doesn’t work for that and needs to be sold on. The more abilities the horse has, the more places he can be used.
The pure Cleveland stallion Knaresborough Fusilier, is now available with shipped semen from Indiana. His new owner is an Amish man, but horse is in an excellent facility for reproduction services. Fusilier has two young horses in Eventing this year, Chakola’s Foreman and Epiphany Bay Independence. I believe they are both pure Cleveland. The partbred Clevelands are lighter built than the purebreds, have more speed and not so massive. I understand these two young horses are showing well, moving up the levels. We have two young partbred Cleveland horses, a yearling and 3yr old by Fusilier, with another mare bred back to him for next year.
Our young horses are aimed at Combined Driving careers, which require the same kind of athletic abilities as ridden Eventing horses do. They have great minds, are very accepting of all sorts of new or odd things, with sturdy builds, good hoof sizes. Both these two young horses came from Epiphany Bay Farm in Virginia, specializing in Cleveland Bay horses both pure and partbred. They have a FB page to see their animals or contact them. These 2 are full siblings, hoping to have matching gaits, size when we use them in Pairs or Fours to move together easier. Their dam EB Abigail is a Cleveland x TB, though I don’t know her TB lines. She is a nice looking and moving horse. She is bred back to Fusilier for a foal next year. They used the shipped semen, said the stallion owner was easy to work with, semen was in good shape, got the mare bred easily.
Good recommend to us and we took our mare to the facility, left her there to be bred. Only 3 hours from us and easier to do over dealing with Vet, shipping semen and timing the mare. They took great care of our mare, got her in foal on one heat cycle, checked in foal, so we brought her home again. She looked very good. I would take her back to them easily, nice folks to deal with.
Using a Purebred Cleveland stallion, his foals are eligible for registration in the Cleveland Bay Horse Society as Partbreds. Mares can be bred back to Clevelands or other breeds, and still have their foals registered down to 1/8th blood.
The Clevelands are VERY prepotent, put their mark on the foals in bigger bone, size, good disposition, athletic abilities. Color is usually bay but not always. They are fun horses to use and enjoy in many disciplines. Our partbreds as Driving horses need to do Dressage, cross country at required speeds, be agile in timed cones courses. We have also used them as Trail horses, Western both Pleasure and Gymkahna, worked cattle and horses on ranches, Hunt Paces and Pony Club. They do whatever we need and pretty well too. They are smart and easy to live with here. None here are ploddy or dull, which is often a perception of Clevelands. Ours are light, have floating gaits, can be as responsive as you like, not needing to be held together with arm strength. They get good scores in their Dressage tests. Breed is often called WB or other European Registries at shows by bystanders. This since folks “recognize” them as such just looking! Most people are quite amazed when you correct them about breeding being Cleveland, since horses are NOT drafty thick or ploddy!! Lot of wrong perceptions about Clevelands around, passed on by folks with who never saw or dealt with a pure or partbred Cleveland. More “somebody told them” or read something about Clevelands in a book. One wrong notion is that Clevelands are drafty coarse, poorly gaited. They are nothing like the true Drafts or Draft crossbreds. Whole different type of bone and movement.
The number for Fusilier’s owner Ray Yoder is 574-642-1147, which is voice mail. They will call you back, usually early. Stud fee is low because breed is new to Indiana, hoping to get more Amish mares in as well as folks who know the stallion by his older get. Fuslilier is from the UK, imported years ago and of extremely good quality. I think the only stallion advertising is in the local Amish news magazine for Indiana and Ohio. There are other Cleveland Stallions available, but I talked about Fusilier because I am most familiar with him right now, LIKE what he produces. The Epiphany Bay folks were wonderful to buy horses from. They worked daily with the foals, so they were quite domesticated when we picked them up for the 14 hour trip home. Both foals rode home well, ate and drank, layed down some in the trailer box stall. They have continued being nice young horses as time passes and really LIKE people. They are going to be so much fun to use as they get older!!
So putting up another breed idea for you to consider for your future Eventer prospect. We have greatly enjoyed our Cleveland Partbreds for many years of fun and competition.
