The Old English Black (also known as Lincolnshire Black) is an extinct

horse breed A horse breed is a selectively bred population of domesticated horses, often with pedigrees recorded in a breed registry. However, the term is sometimes used in a broader sense to define landrace animals of a common phenotype located within a l ...

. During the time of the

Norman Conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...

in 1066, the Normans may have taken some of the Great Horses from

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across the

English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" ( Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), ( Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Ka ...

and bred them with native Horses. Eventually, a distinct type evolved that was known as the Old English Black Horse. Despite the name, the breed had not been a colour breed. For a long period of time, bays and browns were more commonplace than blacks. There were also roans, greys, and chestnuts among them. The colour markings were not unlike those of Clydesdale horses, with the desired pattern being four white stocking and a well-defined bald face. Large Dutch horses (possibly of

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and Friesian descent) were imported by William III when he discovered that the cart horses of his era were not strong enough for the task of draining the Lincolnshire Fens. These horses became known as the Lincolnshire Blacks. Eventually, the Old English Black Horse became

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

as a distinct breed and its bloodlines merged into other breeds. According to Hall and Clutton-Brock, Robert Bakewell developed the Old English Black Horse into the Black Horse of Leicestershire, a forerunner of the Shire Horse of the Midlands. The Old English Black Horse heavily influenced the bloodlines of the Clydesdale and

Shire Shire is a traditional term for an administrative division of land in Great Britain and some other English-speaking countries such as Australia and New Zealand. It is generally synonymous with county. It was first used in Wessex from the begin ...

, and these breeds today have many features inherited from their ancestors.

Notes

References

* * Stephen JG Hall & Juliet Clutton-Brock, Two Hundred Years of British Farm Livestock Extinct horse breeds Horse breeds originating in England Horse breeds {{Horse-breed-stub