Last updated: November 5, 2026
If you’ve seen a stocky chestnut horse with a flaxen mane and tail pulling a sleigh or a wagon in southern Germany, there’s a good chance it was a Black Forest horse. It’s a small draft breed with a long history of farm and forestry work, and it’s still rare.
Here’s a closer look at their size and build, their chestnut coloring, temperament and uses, where the breed came from, and how rare it is.
Table of Contents
| Trait | Details |
|---|---|
| Origin | Black Forest, Baden-Württemberg, Germany |
| Type | Small cold-blood draft horse |
| Height | About 14.2 to 15.3 hands |
| Weight | Around 1,100 pounds |
| Color | Chestnut to dark chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail |
| Temperament | Calm and good-natured |
| Uses | Driving, pleasure riding, and some farm and forestry work |
| Status | Rare; on the GEH Red List |
Size and Build: Horse or Pony?
For a draft horse, the Black Forest is small. The breed standard set by the Pferdezuchtverband Baden-Württemberg, which keeps the original studbook, calls for mares between 148 and 156 centimeters, or about 14.2 to 15.1 hands, and stallions up to 160 centimeters, about 15.3 hands, when fully grown. A typical horse weighs around 1,100 pounds, according to Oklahoma State University. Compare that to a Belgian or Shire, and it’s a lot less horse.
That size is why some people call it a Black Forest pony, but it’s a small draft horse, with the muscle and build of a working horse in a more compact package, a lot like a large Haflinger or a small Noriker.
Black Forest horses have a short, strong neck, sloping shoulders, a broad, muscular croup, and broad, hard hooves. Unlike many draft breeds, they have clean legs with no feathering.
Black Forest Horse Colors
The color is what most people notice first. Germans call chestnut “Fuchs,” or fox, and the breed standard calls for chestnut to dark chestnut with a light mane and tail. The coats run from lighter shades to very dark liver chestnut, usually with a flaxen mane and tail. Depending on where you’re from, you might call the lighter red shades sorrel rather than chestnut.
The dark chestnuts are the ones that stop people. Called Dunkelfuchs, or Kohlfuchs for the darkest, coal-colored ones, they can be nearly black, and with that pale mane and tail, some look like a silver dapple. They aren’t. The silver gene lightens black pigment, which is what makes a silver dapple, and it doesn’t visibly change a chestnut coat. When researchers tested 250 Black Forest horses, every one was genetically chestnut, according to a study in the Iranian Journal of Applied Animal Science. Only two carried the silver gene, and it wasn’t expressed in their chestnut coats.
Other colors do turn up. Bay, black, and gray Black Forest horses are uncommon, but they’re not excluded from the breed, and the breed standard calls for keeping them as part of its heritage.
Temperament and Uses
The breed standard selects for an easygoing, good-natured horse with a calm, balanced temperament. That’s a useful trait in a horse that works around people, whether it’s hauling logs, pulling a carriage, or carrying a rider.
Black Forest horses were bred for farm and forestry work, and some still do it. Today, they’re mostly carriage, sleigh, and pleasure horses for riding and driving. Their suitability as a leisure horse is what helped the population grow again, according to Oklahoma State University.
This video shows Black Forest horses pulling traditional carriages.
Their size and temperament can make them worth a look for a beginner, and a 15-hand horse can feel less intimidating than a full-size draft. Still, I’d put the individual horse’s training and experience ahead of its breed. A smaller draft isn’t automatically easier to handle, and a quiet horse still has to be the right match for its rider. These horse breeds for beginners are worth comparing.
Where the Black Forest Horse Comes From
The breed comes from the Black Forest, a cold, mountainous, heavily wooded region in Baden-Württemberg. Horse breeding has been part of the region’s history for centuries. The monasteries around St. Peter and St. Märgen played a big part in it, which is why the breed was once called the St. Märgener Fuchs.
The breed is thought to descend from the old Wälderpferd, a heavy horse used for farm work and hauling timber. Farmers needed something tough enough for steep, rocky hill country and hard winters, and over time they bred a lighter, more agile draft horse. Breeders selected for the flaxen chestnut color, and a breed association and studbook were started in 1896.
Not long after, breeders were pushed to use heavy Belgian stallions to add size. Many farmers quietly kept breeding to their own native stallions, and some foals were registered with false papers, according to Oklahoma State University. During World War I, the authorities decided the Belgians weren’t suited to the breed, and farmers could choose their own stallions again.
Stallions from a few other breeds, including Noriker, Haflinger, Freiberger, and Welsh Cob, were later used to help keep the breed going. Today the studbook is closed to other breeds, according to the breeding program. You’ll also see it called the Schwarzwälder Fuchs or Black Forest Coldblood.
How Rare Is the Black Forest Horse?
The breed nearly disappeared once tractors and machinery took over farm and forestry work. Numbers fell hard in the decades after World War II, as farms and forests stopped needing horses.
It has come back some, but it’s still rare. In 2024, the Baden-Württemberg association recorded 663 mares and 68 stallions. Across all the German breeding associations, the totals were 974 mares and 97 stallions, according to the German equestrian federation. Those are registered breeding animals, not a count of every Black Forest horse alive.
The breed is on the Red List of endangered livestock breeds kept by the GEH, a German society for preserving old breeds. A separate federal report published in 2023 classifies it as an observation population, which the report defines as an endangered population with a limited effective population size. That means its breeding population still needs monitoring and conservation work.
Most Black Forest horses are still bred in Baden-Württemberg, where the state stud at Marbach stands Black Forest stallions, and you’ll rarely find one outside Germany.
About Miles Henry
Racehorse Owner & Author | 30+ Years in Thoroughbred Racing
Miles Henry (legal name: William Bradley) is a professional horseman based in Folsom, Louisiana. He holds Louisiana Racing License #67012 and has spent over three decades managing Thoroughbreds at premier tracks including Fair Grounds, Delta Downs, and Evangeline Downs.
Expertise & Hands-On Experience: Beyond the track, Miles has decades of experience in specialized equine care, covering everything from hoof health and nutrition to training protocols for Quarter Horses, Friesians, and Paints. Every guide on Horse Racing Sense is rooted in this “boots-on-the-ground” perspective.
30 of their last 90 starts
Equibase Profile.
Connect with Miles: