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There are many horse breeds (hundreds) but they all fall into one of three categories: warmblood, coldblood or hot blood.

The cold blood breeds originated in Europe. They were bred for heavy work and long hours, pulling farm equipment, carts, barges and other heavy items. They had to have both power and endurance but there was little need for speed. Consequently, they were bred to have well developed muscles, on heavy bones and large joints. They also need to have a calm, even docile nature, so that they would obey commands and would not frighten and run off with farm equipment or other loads. In response to the need to work in cold European winters, their tails, manes and coats had long, thick hair. The Shire horse and the Clydesdale are typical cold blood breeds.

Hot Blood. In the middle-east and some of the other warmer climates, horses were bred for riding and racing. Such horses are built for speed and distance, rather than power and endurance, so had much lighter bodies and in particular more delicate legs. Their coats, manes and tails have relatively short hair in response to the warm climate. Also, their blood vessels are nearer the skin surface in order to dissipate heat better. Their temperament is spirited and competitive, traits that help them win races. The Arabian and the Thoroughbred and among the best known hot bloods.

The warmbloods (or warm bloods) have characteristics between the cold bloods and hot bloods, both physically and temperamentally. Some, but not all, of the warmblood breeds were created by crossing hot blood breeds and cold blood breeds to produce a new breed, followed by selective breeding to retain the best characteristics of the warm and cold ancestry. They have an athletic build and speed, combined with intelligence and calm (but not docile) disposition. As such, they excel in sports such as show jumping which require not only physical speed but also intelligence, a settled disposition and trainability. Examples are the Friesian and Hanoverian breeds.

These three terms (cold, hot, warm) of course refer to their climate of origin and their temperament, not to the temperature of their blood. All horses have approximately the same body and blood temperatures (about 38C or 100.5F) and as mammals they are all ‘warm blooded’ from a biological classification perspective.

All breeds are bred for certain characteristics, but the desired objectives tend to change over time, with the result that the breeding direction changes as well. As an example, the Oldenburg warmblood was bred in the late’00s to be an elegant carriage horse, in the early’00s the direction changed to be a farm and artillery horse, and in modern years to be a sport horse. Consequently, the breeds have changed over time not only due to the success of breeding programs but also due to the changing direction of breeding programs. More generally, as the historical functions of horses have been taken over by machines (e.g. farm work by tractors, transport by cars), the breeding objectives have been more towards sports and pleasure riding. This change in the objectives and use of individual breeds has resulted in a parallel gradual evolution of the three categories of warm, cold and hot bloods.