Thoroughbred Horses

The Thoroughbred is a horse breed best known for its use in horse racing. Although the word "thoroughbred" is sometimes used to refer to any breed of purebred horse, it technically refers only to the Thoroughbred breed. Thoroughbreds are considered a "hot-blooded" horse, known for their agility, speed and spirit.

The Thoroughbred as it is known today was first developed in 17th and 18th century England, when native mares were crossbred with imported Arabian stallions. All modern Thoroughbreds can trace their pedigrees to three stallions originally imported into England in the 1600s and 1700s, and to 74 foundation mares of English and Oriental (Arabian or Barb) blood. Millions of Thoroughbreds exist worldwide today, with over 118,000 foals registered each year worldwide.

Thoroughbreds are used mainly for racing, but are also bred for other riding disciplines, such as show jumping, combined training, dressage, polo, and fox hunting. They are also commonly cross-bred with other breeds to create new breeds or to improve existing ones, and have been influential in the creation of many important breeds, such as the Quarter Horse, the Standardbred, the Anglo-Arabian, and various Warmblood breeds.

The Thoroughbred is a distinct breed of horse, though people sometimes refer to a purebred horse of any breed as a "thoroughbred". The term for any horse or other animal that is derived from a single breed line is "purebred While the term probably came into general use because the English Thoroughbred's General Stud Book was one of the first breed registries created, in modern usage, horse breeders consider it incorrect to refer to any horse or other animal as a "thoroughbred" except for horses belonging to the Thoroughbred breed. Nonetheless, breeders of other species of purebred animals may use the two terms interchangeably, though the term "thoroughbred" is not used as often for describing purebred animals of other species