'Shirehorse' is the term often used referring to heavy horses, however it is a name of a distinct breed of horse, the shires. This incredible breed of horse descended from warhorses of the middle ages and of Tudor times. These horses can stand up to nineteen hands high (6.4 feet or two meters), and can weigh more than a ton, a fit shire can pull twice its own weight.

Selective breeding of horses during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the midlands of England eventually led to the shire we know today, and they spread across the country as a draft work horse used on farms. 

Shires are known as gentle giants, but this is something I believe this is applies to any horse and is due to upbringing. Shires were (most often) treated as colleges and friends on the farms, and of course this became a two way relationship. A good example is our horse Chester, he had 'a bit' of trouble loading a few months back. Once we were out on a day out and Chester decided he was not going back in the box. With some persuasion and taking our time we got him on the ramp, ready to go in, until a 'horseman' (who shall remain nameless) who looked about 110 years old and about 3 foot high ran up to Chester uninvited and whipped him with a rope. After that it took four hours to load him and contributed to a ongoing loading problem for months. Chester eventually decided to trust us and now he loads in three seconds flat.

The shires were the most common breed of draft horse across the country throughout the 1800's until early last century they met their fate, the world wars. During the great war one and a half million shires were killed, and those that were not, came back to a collapsing agricultural industry. The slump in farming carried on until world war two, where the horses helped providing some income for farmers. As the decades passed, the numbers dwindled until during the 1960's, the breed faced extinction. Breweries became the only market for geldings, but soon changed to the combustion engine. 

The Shires faced a brighter future, The Shirehorse society was set up to help maintain the breed, in 1970 shires travelled to America for breeding. Many people over the age of 50 can remember themselves or a relative working shires on a farm. When we go to working days with Chester and Lucy, more often than not, a aging lady or gentlemen will come and stroke them saying "I used to work shires with my granddad on the farm." Soon those days will be gone. 

Farms today are struggling enough, and there is no way working horses will be a viable proposition on the farm, but shires have a future in specialist agricultural areas (such as timber-hauling) but mainly in recreation. Shires are slowly becoming popular for riding (with those with a head for heights) and societies such as the Midlands heavy horse association and the Cotswold cart horse society provide a forum for people, old and young to take the horses and old farming equipment and have a weekend of nostalgia, and a few weeks of nostalgia a year is just enough to keep a old horse in work and hay.

Written by David Norry, 2000