HOW IS A horse classified COLD BLOOD?
You may hear a horse referred to as being a cold blood, warm blood, or a hot blood. And many dressage horses these days are often referred to as a warm blood. However, this actually doesn’t have anything to do with their body temperature or their blood. All horses have a normal body temperature range of 101-101.5 degrees F. The designation of cold blood or hot blood is a traditional designation that identifies a horse breed’s temperament and movement characteristics. The cold bloods are the drafts and workhorses, so named because they are slow moving, heavily muscled and generally have easy going, less reactive temperaments. The quick moving, more reactive hot bloods are the performance and saddle horses. Crossing these two types resulted in the warm blood breeds, which are bigger boned, and a little more docile than the average hot blood.
