Belgium

    As early as the 11th century, Flanders was famous for breeding great horses.  Many were exported, and King John imported one hundred stallions to England.  These were massive creatures, Roman-nosed and cold-blooded--that is, of the phlegmatic northern type--and the forebears of the Belgian and other cart-breeds of today.  They became indispensable as battle horses around A. D. 1300 when fully armored knights needed coursers capable of carrying weight.  Later, English crusaders were to find that the lightly armored Infidels, riding Arabian horses could outpace them, and some of these horses were brought back to England.
    Henry VIII rudely likened his Queen, Anne of Cleves, to a Flanders mare, but it was those very qualities of weight and heaviness he derided in his fourth wife, that he most admired in the horses for his fighting men.  During his reign, breeding heavy horses was given great impetus, and many weight-carrying animals were imported from Flanders and elsewhere in Europe.  Belgium, France and Holland (the Netherlands), now incorporating Flanders, are still famous for their heavy horses, most of which are linked in ancestry, some breeds being extremely old.
    The Belgian warm-blood horse has only been evolved comparatively recently from breeds of other countries.  There are two types; one for riding, the other a racing trotter.  There are also supposedly two types of Belgian draft horses, one light and one heavy, and one source indicated that the Ardennais draft (probably the same as that linked above), the Brabant draft, the Gelderland, and the Flemish horse are or were also bred in Belgium.
    The Flemish horse is a Belgian breed considered to stem directly from the "Great Horse," or "black horse of Flanders," which in Medieval times was developed to carry knights clas in heavy armor into battle.  The Flemish horse is believed to be closely related to the Friesian (Holland) draft horse.  Belgium has always been one of the chief users of heavy horses, and it is said that probably nine out of ten horses there are, or were, of the draft type.

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