Numpty Question: Is a cob a breed or a type?

Flicker

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Sorry, but I come from South Africa and we don't have cobs over there...
I just wondered if a 'cob' is a breed (like an Arab / TB etc) or a 'type' (like a 'sports horse').
Cob owners, can you enlighten me?
 

domane

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It's a type. Usually a mixure of breeds. My understanding is that a "Welsh cob" is a Sec D X but I am open to correction on this....
 

Serenity087

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It's both!!!

Cob is a type of horse, usually crossbred, that is stocky, weight carrying, buckets of personality, usually coloured, but not always, and anywhere from 13-16hh

Cob is also TWO breeds - a Welsh Section D, which is much flashier than most cob types, or a Gypsy Cob - aka the Gypsy Vanner - which are pure bred coloured horses around the 15hh mark, stocky things, very good dooers and bred for driving. Probably decended from the old coloured shires that the Shire horse society got snobby about!

Then there's show cobs, much more specific about the height and bone.

TBH, cobs might as well be the gap between "horse" and "pony". It's a huuuuge kettle of fish!
 

Flicker

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Thanks all - I love cobs (even though I am a sports-horse owner)!

How are the cob types usually bred - I am guessing there is draught blood in there, mountain / moorland?
 

FMM

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Show cobs can be all sorts. One of our LW cobs who has been very successful this year is by a Darley Stud TB stallion that ran in the Derby out of one of their foster mares. Another is 7/8 irish draught, some you can't tell. Several years ago Robert Oliver hogged a substantial welsh cob and showed that as a show cob and was champion at HOYS.

In the past I have had a part bred Cleveland Bay LW cob. THey are freaks of nature!!!
 

Kaylum

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Thanks all - I love cobs (even though I am a sports-horse owner)!

How are the cob types usually bred - I am guessing there is draught blood in there, mountain / moorland?


Apart from the classified pure bred they can have almost any breed in them, e.g shire, clyde, fjord, halfinger, cb, any mixture of breeds not necessarily native.
 

pastie2

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Cobs are certainly a type, so are Jack Russels, Irish Draughts, New Forests(will be beaten with a stick there). If you dont know the breed in a M&M class its always a NF.
 

Serenity087

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Cobs are certainly a type, so are Jack Russels, Irish Draughts, New Forests(will be beaten with a stick there). If you dont know the breed in a M&M class its always a NF.

I've yet to find a native that isn't like that.... highlands, dartmoors, shetlands, welsh.... they all seem to vary immensely when you put them all in the ring together!

As for breeding cobs - it's a magical formular that no one knows! We tried crossing an IDxsomething irish (possibly cob) with an argentinian criollo to get a cob!!!

Sadly didn't work, but I'd have loved to have seen the outcome!!
 
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