The American Brabant Association

The

American

Brabant

Association

The Brabant draft horse is the foundation horse for the American Belgian. Until about 1940, the Brabant and the American Belgian were essentially the same horse. After World War II the Brabant was bred in Europe to be thicker bodied and more drafty, with heavy feathering on the legs, while in the United States the Belgian was bred to be taller, lighter bodied and clean legged.

Stallion Scout (75%) on the offside and mare Mabel (87%) in lead owned by Karen Gruner of Ijamsville, MD, rake hay. Both horses are bay roans. Bay roan comes in a variety of shades.

The Brabant is raised in several European countries and goes by different names, depending on the country of origin. In southern Belgium, the Brabant is called the Cheval de trait Belge or Brabançon. In northern Belgium, the Brabant is called the Belgisch Trekpaard. In France it is the cheval Trait du Nord, and in Holland it is the Nederland Trekpaard. The Brabant is also raised in Denmark, Luxembourg and Germany.
Stallion Rocky (100% Brabant) and mare Bulah (75%), both bay roans bred in the U.S. from Milkwood Farms stock by Eros van't Berrekenshof, owned by Tommy Flowers of Blackville, SC. The modern Brabant has a deep, close-coupled body with a short thick neck, a massive but neat head, and plenty of bone in the legs. The typical height range is 15.2 hand high to 17 hh. The Brabant is an easy keeper with a quiet, gentle, willing disposition, making it an ideal breed for the small farmer interested in sustainable agriculture. The modern Brabant is a true draft horse. Showing the Brabant's versatility are a pair of U.S. bred 100% Brabant mares (lead is bay roan, off is blue roan), owned by Alan Quimby of MT. Unlike the American Belgian, the Brabant comes in many colors. The most common colors are red bay and bay roan. Also seen are dark bay (brown), blue roan, black (rare), sorrel, strawberry roan and even gray (rare).


Milkwood Farm's Hardi by Eros van't Berrekenshof, 16 hh strawberry roan 75% Brabant stallion owned by Doug Hill of WY.

MEMBERSHIP

The American Brabant Association exists to preserve and promote the Brabant (European Belgian) draft horse in the United States and Canada. The membership fee is $25 per year and includes two newsletters and two smaller mailings. Our January newsletter includes the member-breeder list and a pictorial stallion parade. Our July newsletter focuses on spring foals and farm work and logging with Brabants. Newsletters also contain articles of interest to the draft horse enthusiast, like starting the young horse, health issues such as vaccination and worming, and news from Europe. Joining is as easy as filling out our print-and mail membership form. Won't you join us?

American Brabant Association

Mark Roller
     526 Snug Harbor
      Liverpool, TX 77577
      832-654-3537
      driftwoodfarms@hotmail.com

Bra-bant (br-bant, -bant, brabnt, -bant)A region and former duchy of the Netherlands. It became an independent duchy in 1190 and is now divided between the southern Netherlands and north-central Belgium...

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source

Bra·bant

[bruh-bant, brah-buh

nt; Du. brah-bahnt; Fr. bra-bahn] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation

–noun

Brabant Horses, Built for Work DVD-R

The breed of horse known in the United States as the Brabant is today’s Belgian horse of Europe. Although the Brabant and the American Belgian share a common origin in Europe, the Brabant has retained its working draft characteristics. Brabants are the heaviest and most docile of all draft horses in the world today. The Brabant remains the gentle giants of yesteryear and makes an ideal choice for a working farm horse.

Karen Gruner has raised and worked Brabants since 1993 and has traveled to Belgium three times. She started the American Brabant Association in 1999 and serves as the organization’s secretary/treasurer. In this video Karen gives you a brief history of the Brabant and its relationship with the American Belgian, and shows the breed’s willingness and tractability, as illustrated by a calm 22-month-old filly in her early stages of harness training.

Most Brabant stallions in the United States are trained to do field work, ride, and drive. Watch two different stallions at work in the woods and the field, both single and as part of a team. This video will convince you Brabants are well suited for multiple purposes on a small diversified farm.

Before ordering this DVD, please make sure it will play on your DVD player. Check our information on DVD Compatability. Note to customers overseas: this DVD is region 1/NTSC format.

Author:

Karen Gruner, ABA

Details:

30 minute DVD-R

Price:

$28.00 (US$)

ISBN:

1-893707-36-9

Order No.:

495D

REVIEWS & COMMENTS:

Carl Byerly wrote:

This video was filmed in a scenic locale, which adds much to its aesthetic appeal. Karen gives a good presentation of how the Flemish, the Brabant, and the Ardennes strains formed the Brabant of the United States and the Belgian of Europe. She demonstrates how to segment the Brabant’s body into thirds to illustrate ideal conformation. I totally agree with her that the depth of body should approximate the length of the legs. While this review isn’t intended to be a critique of draft owners’ desires, I feel the longer legs on a modern draft horse don’t make a larger horse, just a taller one.

I wish the presentation of conformation faults in the Brabant had been greatly expounded. Terminology is used that would probably not be understood by most lay people. The thickening of the skin and the resulting nodules, being a condition known as chronic progressive lymphoma, should have been more thoroughly explained. Also, the statement “skin being vascularized by fluid buildup of the lymphatic system” should have been better explained. The terminology that clean legs—meaning clean of lymphoma vascularizing—as the ideal should have been expounded upon. This video does, however, cite a European case where a horse had to be euthanized before age five because of this condition, typical of many Brabants. Although not mentioned in the tape, this condition is often known as wet legs, and the opposite as dry legs.

Karen goes on to give an excellent demonstration on the ease of training the tractable Brabant to harness. No Brabant tape could be complete without the personable Tommy Flowers and his Brabants Rocky, Beulah, and Rosa. Tommy is devoted to his breed and obviously enjoys talking to people about them. All together, Karen’s sincerity and dedication to the Brabant make this program an enjoyable and informative way to spend 30 minutes in front of the TV.

Karen Gruner... acornridgemd@hotmail.com

Brabant draught horse or Brabander. Official name: Belgian draught horse.
Until ten years ago they could still be seen in the meadows of Flanders: those strong Brabant horses with their light socks and stumpy tails. Now they are only seen parading in carnivals or helping with forestry work. This wonderful horse almost disappeared from our landscape for ever. Their natural horsepower was replaced by mechanical power.

Fortunately, a well-known brewery from Steenhuffel made a commitment to ensure that the race would not die out. The brewer is very fond of his chestnut draught horse, one of the seven different colours that can be bred. His amber-coloured skin and white mane is reminiscent of a cool glass of beer with a head of foam. Now there are again 15,000 Brabants in Belgium, but their continued existence is under threat from a disease affecting their legs. The cause of this is the many beauty contests for horses, as a result of which breeders no longer select for strength but for aesthetic characteristics. Their life expectancy is therefore falling from 25 years to 6 years.

The Belgian Draught Horse is bred from the best Belgian breeds and has a proud history. Even in the time of Julius Caesar the Ardennes draft horse was highly valued. In the Middle Ages diligent horses bore the heavily armoured riders in jousting tournaments. The Habsburg soldiers, however, needed slim, agile cavalry horses. The Austrians therefore tried to cross the muscular draft horse with lighter breeds. Their efforts were fruitless.

Experience has taught that only pure breeding gives the best draft horse. Intensive crossing of the best breeds from the Dender and Nijvel regions and the Méhange valley have made the Belgian draft horse the undisputed number one. Until W.W. I, some 35,000 animals were sold each year in America, Canada and Russia. Between 1850 and 1930 the price tag for a stallion could be up to a million francs.

References to this noble horse can be found here and there in Flemish Brabant. Along the Leuvensevaart canal, walkers can follow a towing barge, moving at the steady pace of a sturdy Brabant. Vilvoorde, the town of the 'Pjeirefretters', boasts a statue of the Belgian draft horse made by Koen Van Daele in 1993.

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