These pack horses were cross-bred with Andalusian and Barb blood, and later with Arabians and Thoroughbreds, to create the Cleveland Bay of today.

The popularity of the Cleveland Bay has greatly fluctuated since it was first imported to the United States in the early nineteenth century.

Despite serious declines in the population after the Second World War, the breed has experienced a resurgence in popularity since the 1970s, although only around 550 horses existed worldwide as of 2006.

[1] This preference for brighter shades of bay was originally stated in the official breed standard, although this stipulation has since been removed.

[6] In the early twentieth century, when a breed standard was issued by the British Cleveland Bay Society for use in judging shows, a section was added on the movement of the horses, describing the desired action, especially at the trot.

Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, used the breed during the 1970s and 1980s in combined driving competitions, borrowing horses from the Royal Mews and returning them for state duties.

The Barb blood came mainly from horses imported by wealthy young men on their Grand Tour of Europe, bought off the docks in Marseilles, France, and transported back to England.

Once in the hands of Cromwell's men, many of the stallions were made available for locals to cross with the existing Chapman Horses, adding a second infusion of Iberian bloodlines.

In the late 17th century, a second infusion of Barb blood was added when Cleveland breeders purchased horses directly from soldiers at Tangier, or from the Moors themselves.

[22] A separate 2020 study also found that three of the maternal lines in the modern-day Cleveland Bay likely originated from Iberian or Barb mares.

[17] The 19th century saw the export of many Cleveland Bays overseas to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, India, Russia, France, Germany, and the European continent.

[30] In the early 19th century, Cleveland Bays were first imported to Maryland, Virginia, and Massachusetts in the United States, and in 1884 the Upperville Colt & Horse Show was created in Virginia by Colonel Richard Henry Dulany to showcase his imported Cleveland Bay stallion and the offspring of the stallion.

The horses were of interest to Buffalo Bill Cody, who drove four Cleveland Bay stallions in his Wild West Show.

Some were bred and owned by King George V.[32][33] However, interest in the Cleveland Bay was waning, due to increased mechanisation, and the Great Depression of the early 1930s reduced exports by almost a third.

[32] There was a brief revival of interest in the late 1930s in the United States when Alexander Mackay-Smith imported some as foundation stock for hunters.

Queen Elizabeth II saved the breed by purchasing Mulgrave Supreme, a stallion that was about to be sold to a buyer in the United States.

[4] In the late 1960s and 1970s, interest in the breed increased, and part-bred Cleveland Bays were in demand for use as riding horses, especially for use as hunters and jumpers.

Japan, the United States, and Australia have continued to import the horses from England; and, in New Zealand, crosses between Cleveland Bay stallions and native mares were in demand on cattle and sheep stations.

[4] In the late 20th century, the breed again gained the attention of the United States public, and in 1985, the U.S. association was reactivated, renamed "The Cleveland Bay Society of North America".

In the US, The Livestock Conservancy considers their status to be critical, which means there is an estimated global population of less than 500, and fewer than 200 annual registrations in the United States.

[12] Paul Bennett, the director of the Coach and Livestock Department for Colonial Williamsburg, estimated the global population of purebred Cleveland Bays to be around 1,000 in 2020, with 220 being in North America, including the United States and Canada.

[42] According to the group, there were 758 horses of Cleveland Bay ancestry alive in North America as of June 2024, with 238 (32.4%) being purebreds, and 520 (68.6%) being partbreds.

[52] In 1905, J. Wortley Axe wrote, "In most of their essential properties, however, the Cleveland Bay and the Yorkshire Coach-horse are very closely allied, the two varieties representing the best type of heavy coachers we possess".

[44] There has been some debate over whether or not the Yorkshire Coach Horse constituted an actual breed or was just a type as its epoch was relatively short-lived, breeders primarily used first and second-generation Thoroughbred and Cleveland Bay crosses, and many found the Yorkshire Coach Horse to be indistinguishable from the Cleveland Bay.

During the height of the London season hundreds of pairs of Yorkshire coach horses could be seen in Hyde Park every afternoon.