The Ardennes Horse…

[TBigLug]

Does anyone in the US breed these guys?

Does anyone on this site (foreign or domestic) use them?

What do you guys think of them?

I’ve been doing some research the last week or so and really like these little horses. Compact, sturdy, thick, rugged, smart. They look like an ideal logging, plowing, cart pulling, do-it-all niche’ horse. I’ve wanted to start a breeding operation but right now the market ids FLOODED during this bad economy with well bred Belgians and Percherons that go for next to nothing. Maybe there’s something to these little powerhouses…

[Joshua Kingsley]

John,
Simon uses them for logging. He is on this site and perhapse you could find his posts. I know that I liked the look of them as well. Good luck finding them I haven’t found any in the US so probably abroad is where you will end up looking. If you find some I would love to hear about it.
Joshua

[Scott G]

John,
About the closest thing we have over here of any number are true to type Brabants. I am a huge fan of the old school drafts. Some Brabants are definitely in my future…

[mother katherine]

Have you tried any of the Canadian breeders? Look up CLRC.ca to see if they carry the registration.
oxnun

[TBigLug]

I’ve looked into Brabants for a couple years but never did end up with any. I watched a demonstration with a stunt rider who used a team of Brabants for his show. I just checked out the CLRC website, no go. Apparently these little horses are gonna be harder to track down than I thought. Something about keeping the oldest of the draft horse lineage alive will have to drive me on for now. I’ll have to look up this Simon. Is he still around?

[simon lenihan]

http://www.cloveroaksfarm.com, joyce is the only breeder of ardennes in the us, it is a few years since joyce rang me looking for a blue roan filly, i hope i pointed her in the right direction. I along with many loggers here and across europe and scandinavia think the ardennes horse to be far superior to anything else, even horses 2 hand higher and heavier. The ardennes will work very steep ground and is very sure footed and when it comes down to level ground they hold their own wit the biggies. I am biased so it is best to give a few examples. Jim Johnstone is the only horselogger in scotland and a big clydesdale man, his clydes were 17.2hh and 900kg approx, he came and visited us on site 6 years ago and within a couple of months two ardennes were on there way to scotland, Tom nixon from ireland a good friend went and visited jim in scotland, Tom has kept and worked shires in the woods in ireland for years, shires are gone replaced by a 14.3hh ardennes mare. The list goes on. There are some very old blood lines still left in belgium, though alot less than 10 years ago, there are still a few small farmers who breed the old original type of 15hh / 16hh and use them for forestry. One particular small farmer [ rena bodart ] is one such farmer, he along with his friend philip head to the woods once the farm chores are done. They have a contract of 200 tonnes a week with a german sawmill, this is done by 2 ardennes. I am amased that they are not more popular in the us, i know ardennes were exported to the us and canada 100 years ago and i have shown pics of my horses to some eldery canadians who recognised them from when they were kids on the farm, i suppose they were thought to be too small.
simon lenihan

[Scott G]

John,

There you go! Its your destiny to introduce and maintain the Ardennes breed for North America!

I know you can do it ! 😉

[Jean]

http://www.fezziwigfarm.com/

This farm mentions that they bought some of their early stock from Ann Harper in VT. I met Ann at our last draft horse meeting and she has a number of horses still. I can’t remember how many she said, but I remember that I was impressed.

This farm and Ann has Brabants.

[Carl Russell]

These are photos of Simon’s horses that he asked me to post for him.

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Mares Star, Molly, and Tempete.

More in the next post, Carl

[Carl Russell]

Simon’s Ardennes stallions, Sultan and Prince working, and 3 year old Apollo.
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Enjoy, Carl

[TBigLug]

Beautiful horses Simon. Thanks Carl for putting those up.

[TBigLug]

@Joel 12018 wrote:

Better check out fjords…purebred for 2000+ yr now.

Actually, we have a couple breeders in my area that specialize in Fjords. Appears they are safe for now. And I’m looking for something a little bigger, though they are impressive, tough little horses.

@Scott G 12017 wrote:

John,

There you go! Its your destiny to introduce and maintain the Ardennes breed for North America!

I know you can do it ! 😉

Lord I hope so. It will take some years, contacts and $$$ but I think I’ve found a horse breed that will work for me while being unique and worth saving!

[TBigLug]

Picture of a stunning Ardennes stallion courtesy of the Wiki.

[J-L]

Now those look like draft horses to me. We’ve continued to breed tall, thin horses out of Belgians and Percherons. Too bad that we seem to be in the minority, those of us that would like some nice sized using type horses. I really hope that the Suffolk breeders don’t go on a long leg binge.
I would love to have a few of those Ardennes horses. Expensive, rare horses aren’t in my budget so I went with 1400 lb mules.

[simon lenihan]

That looks like a french ardennes and a very bad example i must say, bad legs, too much feather, pigeon neck and overweight. I will send some pics to carl to post of belgian ardennes, swedish ardennes and french ardennes.
simon lenihan

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