There are many horse breeds (hundreds) but they all fall into one of three categories: warm blood, cold blood or hot blood.
The breeds making up the cold blood category originated mainly from Europe, where they were the result of breeding programs to produce horses that could work long hours each day, doing heavy work such as pulling plows, barges or carts. For these tasks there was little need for speed but they were required to have both strength and endurance. Consequently, these breeds developed with large muscular bodies, heavy bone structures and big joints. They also were bred to have a quiet and obedient nature, so that they would obey commands and work long hours without complaint and without risk of them spooking and running off. To deal with the cold winters, they had heavy coats and manes.
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.
The warmbloods (or warm bloods) have characteristics between the cold bloods and hot bloods, both physically and temperamentally. Some, but not all, of the warmblood breeds were created by crossing hot blood breeds and cold blood breeds to produce a new breed, followed by selective breeding to retain the best characteristics of the warm and cold ancestry. They have an athletic build and speed, combined with intelligence and calm (but not docile) disposition. As such, they excel in sports such as show jumping which require not only physical speed but also intelligence, a settled disposition and trainability. Examples are the Friesian and Hanoverian breeds.
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 38C or 100.5F) and as mammals they are all ‘warm blooded’ from a biological classification perspective.
Over time, the requirements for horses changes. As farm work has been taken over by tractors and transport by cars, the breeding objectives have been more towards sports and pleasure riding. In this environment, the warmbloods (and perhaps to a lesser extent the hot bloods) have been somewhat more successful that the cold bloods. Fortunately, a number of cart pulling and other heavy sports have been created to support these breeds. In addition, the calm and stable nature of the cold bloods has made them particularly popular with many children and less confident horse riders.
As the owner of Horses For Sale Duber Stewart writes new articles weekly such as Warmblood and Cold Blood Horses and other horse related topics