 The Ardennes breed could be a direct descendent of the prehistoric Solutre horse, and is thought to be descended from the type of horse described by Julius Caesar in his Commentarii de Bello Gallico. Caesar described these horses of Belgium as "rustic, hard and tireless", and recommended them for use in heavy cavalry units. The early type was used by many later Roman emperors for military applications. The breed's ancestors are thought to have been bred for 2,000 years on the Ardennes plains, and it is one of the oldest documented European heavy draft breeds. In the Roman era, the breed stood only around 14 hands (56 inches, 142 cm) high. Later, Napoleon added Arabian blood to increase stamina and endurance and used the breed in his Russian campaign. In 1780, the breed still stood only 1.42 to 1.52 metres (14.0 to 15.0 hands) and weighed around 500 kilograms (1,100 lb).
