The Ardennais
Researched by Marta Towne

The Ardennais is a heavy European draft horse thought to be descended from ancient horses bred on the Ardennes plateau for over 2000 years. They are among the oldest of the European draft horses and were recognized and values by ancient leaders such as Julius Caesar and Napoleon for their strength and endurance.

During the 18th Century, Arabian blood was introduced into the breed, presumably to increase their endurance and perhaps to make them a bit more fine in appearance. Recently, the Belgian Draft horse has been used to increase the size and strength of this wonderful breed.

As a breed, the Ardennais is praised for it's calm and tolerant attitude and their ability to work rough terrain on limited feed and with a minimum of injury.

There are four distinct types, or perhaps the better description would be sub-breeds, of Ardennais. The main distinction is the colors that are allowed for registration.

Northern Ardennais--These horses were initially recognized as a separate breed about 1910 and their name became officially Northern Ardennais in about 1965. These horses are strongly built and compared to other Draught breeds, rather short. They are powerfully built with heavy bone and muscle structure. They're coats can be bay, roan, red roan and occasionally Chestnut. According to the person I emailed at the French National Stud Haras, they are sometimes found in "sandy bay". Their head is small and often dished with an intelligent eye, short ears and large nostrils. They're muscle is extensive with their neck being medium length and rounded with a thick fall of mane. Nice withers, deeply set in muscle, short back, wide loins and double crouped. Their legs have short cannon bones and pasterns with abundant feather and ending in wide, solid hooves. As of November 2001, for the year of 2000, there were 178 registered births in France with 31 approved sires and 296 mares covered in 2000 to produce registered foals. An additional 30 mares were bred to produce crossbred foals and there were approximately 137 breeders operating under the French National Stud complex. The breeding zone for these horses is huge, bordering the Boulonnais zone in the west, south to Nievre and running along the Ardennais and Auxois zone in the east. The Auxois is a separate breed, but it is often difficult to differentiate the two breeds. The north end or zone of the breeding area meets the Belgian Draught horse

Ardennais Draught-This horse is thought to be descended from the Solutre horses (50000BC), there by making it one of the oldest breeds in existence. As a breed, these horses display hardiness, good nature, strength and endurance that make them ideal multi-use horses . The Ardennais is a compact horse with an expressive head, slightly dished face, prominent eyes and small ears. Well set neck and a body that shows power in it's wide chest, strong back, wide haunches and slanted shoulders. The legs are muscular in the forearm and below, low and wide joints and end in wide, sound hooves. The accepted colors for this section of the Ardennais are bay or roan, sometimes chestnut and occasionally "Isabelle", which has been described as dun or buckskin. However, according to my contact at Haras, they do NOT come in Palomino, i.e. golden coat with a flaxen or white mane and tail. Since it's accepted theory that the same gene causes Buckskin and Palomino, and since there are apparently no Palomino, I presume that the Ardennais "Isabelle" is actually Dun. It is also very, very rare. They are bred in the North East of France in the areas of Champagne-Ardenne, Lorraine and Alsace and are sometimes found in Massif Central or the Pyrennees. As of November 2001, there were 728 registered births in 2000, with 224 approved sires. 1,336 mares produced registerable foals with an additional 140 mares producing crossbred foal s. There were 483 breeders working under the French National stud in 2000.

Belgian Ardennes are bred from the Northern Ardennais, Ardennais, Barbant and Auxois horses. Due to the limited pasture and rough conditions, the Belgian Ardennes has hardened and compacted even more than it's ancestors and cousins. Personality wise, these horses are gentle, kind, strong and willing to work. They have incredible endurance and stamina and are often cart horses. They are built very strongly, close to the ground with a rather heavy head, less refined than the Ardennais or Northern Ardennais, a pronounced jaw, straight or snub profile and a broad face with a flat forehead. The ears, like their cousins in France are small and the nostrils large. The neck is short and musculature and well set on into the powerful shoulders. Their withers are low, broad and powerful and unlike other breeds of Draft or Draught horses, their withers are in line with or lower than the croup. The chest is broad and has a tremendous lung capacity. Their bone structure is massive and powerful with a deep girth, short back and rounded croup. Their legs are short and muscular with strong joints, broad feet and heavy feathers. The hooves a smaller than you'd expect, but strong and nicely formed. All in all, they are a strong, compact horse built for work with a calm but energetic temperament to match. Their coats come in roan, bay, dark chestnut, iron Grey, red roan or palomino with lighter chestnuts and browns accepted, but not desired. Blacks are very rare and excluded from registration.

Swedish Ardennes were bred from the French Ardennais (Northern Ardennais and Ardennais) and Belgian Ardennes during the 19th century. They inherited their calm disposition and willingness to work from their ancestors as well as their compact, powerful appearance. Because of the replacement of Equines by mechanical devices in the transportation services, the Swedish Ardennes has suffered as a breed. But they are still used to transport timber in the mountains and they are a well loved and important part of Sweden's history. About the same height as their French and Belgian cousins, they are a little lighter in weight. They have a heavy head with a straight profile, broad forehead and abundant forelock, mane and tail. Unlike their cousins, they have small eyes in comparison to their faces. They have a short neck and a broad, well muscled, but not very pronounced withers, a short back, rounded, often double, croup and a sloping, nicely muscles shoulders with a deep, wide chest. They're legs are short and heavy with strong muscles and broad joints ending in broad, round hooves with a tough horn. In contrast to their French and Belgian cousins, the Swedish Ardennes has a light feathering on their legs. Their coats may be bay, brown, black or chestnut.

WHAT MODELS CAN YOU USE?
As you can see, the Ardennais (Ardennes) has something for everyone. Depending on what you're looking for in a draft horse, you can find out which sub-breed can give you what you want. Now to make this model horse related, let's look at the models make a good Ardennais or Ardennes horse. Unfortunately, there aren't a great many OF plastic models that would work. However, with a little imagination and some epoxy, there are several models that can be formed into the mold, so to speak.

Breyer Old Mold Stablemate Drafter-probably my favorite to make an Ardennais, since all you really need is additional feathering and more mane and tail. This mold just has the "right stuff" to be made into this breed. It looks like a calm, easy going horse ready to work. My Lilly Du Lac is one such horse….she has won several classes in photo shows. Another of my OM SM Drafters, Bright Idea, has also shown well for me after I added some additional feathers, mane, tail and painted him.

Breyer Clydesdale Stallion-with a LOT of work, you could make this mold into an Ardennais. He'd need more feather, more tail and mane and more width in his entire body.

Justin Morgan-Believe it or not, I have a Justin Morgan that has been made into an Ardennais. He's very nice but has had a LOT of work done and is still really only good as a young horse that hasn't developed all the way yet.

Unfortunately, most molds are too long legged and not even close to broad enough to pass as a Ardennais. Although with a great deal of work, I'm sure you can make any of them pass. Remember, the Ardennais/Ardennes are massively broad, short legged and have abundant mane, tail and (with the exception of the Swedish Ardennes) feather. I'm not familiar with most draft resins, but many seem to be more in the line of Belgian, Shire, Percheron breed characteristics rather than the heavier and more massive Ardennais/Ardennes .

PEDIGREE ASSIGNMENT AND THE REAL MARE REGISTRY

Okay….you've got a model that you think makes a great Ardennais/Ardennes. Or you want a BSO ID for an Ardennais/Ardennes. What now? Well, you have several choices….you can find a person such as myself, who has a few Model Ardennais horses on their Sire/Dam list, or you can search the web for Real Ardennais/Ardennes. The latter is easier said than done at times! A great place to start is the French National Stud at http://www.haras-nationaux.fr/hn0700/accueil/frame01_gb.htm. An even better place, if you've got a lot of time and patience is http://www.harasire.net/sirenet_racine/accueil/accueil_eng.htm. The latter, Harasire allows you to input a horse's name (or a letter and wildcard, if you don't know the name) and get some information. Unfortunately, there is not a lot of information on open years for mares….but you can always email the owners. Or guess.

You can also email me…I have worked for several months now on getting pedigrees and additional information on real Ardennais and Northern Ardennais horses. Which brings us to our next, and last point….

REAL MARE REGISTY

I am the sucker…er, the person who volunteered to run the Ardennais/Ardennes Real Mare Registry. Found the perfect Ardennais/Ardennes mare and want to make sure you're the only one with a 1995 foal out of her? Email me…I'll be happy to tell you if I have an information on her. Or if you are looking for a specific horse, color, name, etc, maybe I have the information. I've divided the registries up into four sub-registries, each one dealing with a sub-breed.

RULES FOR ARDENNAIS/ARDENNES REAL MARE REGISTRY

The real horse you're asking to register must be verifiable. So I'll need a link to the place you found her (or him! I keep a separate list of Stallions!) or a person to contact to verify the horse is real. And I ask that you follow the guidelines of color genetics. For instance, if you MUST register your horse as a Palomino, don't find Northern Ardennais parents. Also remember that color names are often Country specific. For instance, many people insist that Isabelle is Buckskin…..and it may be in Spain. But in many places, it's Dun. Which is a totally different gene. Just because Dun exists in a breed, doesn't mean you can get a Palomino. The Dun gene is different from the Crème gene that controls Buckskin/Palomino. To be safe, make the offspring the same color as one of the parents.

REAL STALLION REGISTRY

That's right…I also keep a list of real Ardennais stallions. If you have any questions about this magnificent breed, I suggest you do a search on Google.com or through WebFerret. The information is there, but sometimes difficult to locate. And when you're researching foreign breeds, do take the time to look at site in their country of origin. Sometimes American sites don't give correct information, or their as confused about certain things as we are. I encourage you to read everything you can find and learn all the "facts", but remember, so called "facts" are often just theories.

For more information, check out these sites……

http://www.harasire.net/sirenet_racine/accueil/accueil_eng.htm
REALLY good for searching for Northern Ardennais or Ardennais horses!

http://www.haras-nationaux.fr/hn0700/accueil/frame01_fr.htm
VERY reliable site for the French horses. Especially if you're wanting the information "right from the horses mouth" so to speak.

http://members.tdn.com/nwbhc/breeds/equines/drafters/ardenn.htm
A good starting point, but don't take it all as gospel. This is an Americanized site, so some of their information is gathered from other sites and just re-presented here.

http://www.ansi.okstate.edu/breeds/horses/ardennes/ As above, this is an Americanized site with some inaccuracies, but if you use it as a starting point , it's a nice jumping off site.

http://www.tiho-hannover.de/einricht/zucht/eaap/groups/h4_1.htm
Short and to the point. A really basic explanation and a good starting point for basic information.

http://www.heavyhorses.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/ardennes.htm
Good information from the British Breeders , they seem more like Swedish Ardennes than the others.

http://www.kipar.org/history_horses_france.html
I haven't really read it, but despite a few inaccuracies, it's a nice place to start.

Marta Towne
Shadow Ridge Ranch
Martat@eritter.net

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