Six purebred Cleveland Bay stallions. That was all that remained of the breed in 1960, and the reigning monarch soon stepped in to buy a young colt destined for export. Queen Elizabeth II bred horses in her private stables and in the working yards that supplied royal and state occasions, and the breeds she championed included Highland ponies, Fell ponies and Cleveland Bays. Her grandfather also bred Cleveland Bays, and her Balmoral prefix for Fell ponies, begun in 1952, kept registering foals into 2021. Conservation groups still credit her yards with keeping bloodlines alive through mechanisation, crossbreeding and shrinking demand.
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