Three Horse Categories

There are hundreds of different breeds of horses, but they are grouped into three broad categories: cold blood, warm blood and hot blood.

Cold Blood. In Europe, horses were originally bred for farm work and as working horses. Their main function was to pull things (e.g. plow, cart, barges, forest logs). They were bred for strength and endurance, able to pull heavy objects and to work many hours each day. This resulted in breeds with big muscles, on heavy frames, with large joints. Such horses also needed to be calm an obedient; the last thing you wanted was a horse running off with a cart or farm equipment. Their coats, manes and tail hair were thick and long to protect them from the European winters. Such horses are not fast, but are very solid working horses. Sample breeds are the Shire and the Clydesdale.

Hot Blood. In the middle-east and some of the other warmer climates, horses were bred for riding and racing. Such horses are built for speed and distance, rather than power and endurance, so had much lighter bodies and in particular more delicate legs. Their coats, manes and tails have relatively short hair in response to the warm climate. Also, their blood vessels are nearer the skin surface in order to dissipate heat better. Their temperament is spirited and competitive, traits that help them win races. The Arabian and the Thoroughbred and among the best known hot bloods.

Warm Blood (also known as warmblood). These breeds fall between hot and cold bloods in terms of both build and temperament. In some cases, the breeds have originated by crossing a cold blood breed with a hot blood breed. They have an athletic build and performance similar to a hot blood, but a calmer disposition and easy trainability which one associates with a cold blood. Due to their physical characteristics and solid temperament, they are used mainly for riding and sports (e.g. show jumping, dressage). Example warm blood breeds are the Friesian and Hanoverian.

These three terms (cold, hot, warm) of course refer to their climate of origin and their temperament, not to the temperature of their blood. All horses have approximately the same body and blood temperatures (about 38°C or 100.5°F) and as mammals they are all 'warm blooded' from a biological classification perspective.

All breeds are bred for certain characteristics, but the desired objectives tend to change over time, with the result that the breeding direction changes as well. As an example, the Oldenburg warmblood was bred in the late 1800s to be an elegant carriage horse, in the early 1900s the direction changed to be a farm and artillery horse, and in modern years to be a sport horse. Consequently, the breeds have changed over time not only due to the success of breeding programs but also due to the changing direction of breeding programs. More generally, as the historical functions of horses have been taken over by machines (e.g. farm work by tractors, transport by cars), the breeding objectives have been more towards sports and pleasure riding. This change in the objectives and use of individual breeds has resulted in a parallel gradual evolution of the three categories of warm, cold and hot bloods.