However, interest in the Cleveland Bay was waning, due to increased mechanisation, and the Great Depression of the early 1930s reduced exports by almost a third.[1] There was a brief revival of interest in the late 1930s in the United States when they became popular as foundation stock for hunters.[23] The decline continued, quickening after the Second World War; in 1960 the War Office stopped offering premiums on stallions, and many breeders discontinued breeding.[21] By 1962, only four purebred stallions were present in the UK.