Horse breeding in the Black Forest – in what is now Baden-Württemberg – is documented from the early fifteenth century in the records of the Abbey of Saint Peter in the Black Forest.[6] A type of heavy horse, the Wälderpferd, was used for forestry and farm work;[5]: 444 it is conjectured that the Black Forest Horse derives from it.[7] The main area of breeding lay between the northern Hotzenwald to the south and the Kinzigtal to the north. Breeding was concentrated round the monasteries of St. Peter and of St. Märgen; for this reason it was formerly known as the St. Märgener Fuchs.[6]
Abreed association, the Schwarzwälder Pferdezuchtgenossenschaft, was started in Sankt Märgen in 1896,[5]: 444 [8] and a stud-book was begun in the same year.[7] In 1935, in the Nazi period, it was merged into the general stud-book for Baden. This was restarted after the War, in 1947, under the French administration. The Schwarzwälder Pferdezuchtgenossenschaft was re-founded in the 1990s.[6]
The Black Forest Horse is always chestnut with a flaxenmane and tail; no other color may be registered.[11] The coat varies from pale to very dark, sometimes almost black; this, with a pale or silvery mane, is the coloring called in German Dunkelfuchs, "dark fox". Intentional selection for flaxen chestnut coloring began in 1875.[2] In a study of 250 horses of the breed published in 2013, two were found to carry silver genes, but because they were chestnut, the silver was not expressed; it was thought to have been introduced by outcrossing to some other breed in the past.[12]
The Black Forest Horse is a draft horse of light to medium weight, well muscled and with a short and powerful neck. The head is short and dry, the shoulders sloped, and the croup broad and muscular. The legs are clean, without feathering, and the hooves broad and strong.[6][2]
Thomas Armbruster, Wolf Brodauf, Gerhard Schröder (2007–2013). Schwarzwälder Kaltblut - Geschichte und Geschichten (3 volumes, in German). Freiburg: Schillinger-Verlag.
These are the horse breeds considered to be wholly or partly of German origin. Many have complex or obscure histories, so inclusion here does not necessarily imply that a breed is predominantly or exclusively German.
