by Eric Fauble

Created on: June 24, 2009   Last Updated: June 25, 2009

The Groningen Horse is a Dutch horse breed developed for light draft and agricultural work. The Groningen is closley related to heavy warmblood breeds, like the East Friesian and Alt-Oldenburger. This breed of horse was nearly lost in the mid-20th century due to the fact that a significant number of mares were used for crossbreeding to create the Dutch Warmblood, leaving very few purebreds.

The Groningen Horse shares much of its initial foundation with the Friesian, East Friesian, the Alt-Oldenburger, and the Holsteiner. Small native farm horses and medieval destriers were influenced by popular Spanish, Neapolitan, and Arabian horses in 17th-18th centuries. Horses like England's Cleveland Bay were utilized, producing a horse that was tall by the standards of the day, as well as reasonably elegant with deep, wide haunches and thick, high-set neck.

Although selection procedures had been in use for many years ahead of time, the first Dutch horse registries weren't founded until late 19th-20th centuries. The North-Netherlands Warmblood Horse Studbook, also known as NWP, regulated horse breeding in Groningen, Friesian, and Drenthe, while NSTg did the same for southern regions, including the Gelderland. The goals of the registries were characterized by distinct differences in the soil composition; Groningen had heavy, wet, clay soil and needed a particularly stout horse to till it, while the soil in Gelderland was much sandier.

Nonetheless, both studbooks aimed to produce a horse that could perform work, retaining as much elegance as possible to make them attractive carriage horses. This certain goal echoed that of neighboring East Frisia and Oldenburg, regions which breeding stock were freely exchanged. The NWP also utilized Holsteiners, which were rumored to have been influenced by horses of Dutch immigrants. In reality, all parts of the region, Frisia, have ties beyond the similarity of soil and weather.

The result of these exchanges was that at the turn of the century, the Groningen, the East Friesian, the Oldenburger, and the Holstenier were all calm, substantial farm and carriage horses, all with primarily dark coats. In the 1920s and 1930s, horses were bred to be rather heavier, fulfilling the roles as tractor artillery horse; the lighter Karossier type was still present in all popualtions.

Following the wars, the breeding of heavy agricultural horses decreased,

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