Horse
Pronunciation:
Sh’ire
Breed Description:
The Shire breed of horse is a very well known draught horse. It is an exceptionally tall breed of horse with huge feet, and nowadays has greater quality that its forebears. The enormous strength of the Shire has won the breed many records in relatively recent time. For example in 1924, at the Wembley Exhibition, a pair of Shires pulling against a dynamometer (which is a machine that measures mechanical power) exceeded the maximum reading. They were estimated to have exerted a pull equal to a starting load of more than 110,000 pounds (or 50 tons)! These same two horses also shifted 40,785 pounds when they were driven in tandem on a slippery granite cobbled surface. In modern times, the Shire horse breed has been very popular with brewing companies that used them to pull large, heavily laden wagons to deliver ale. Traditionally they have also been popular for forestry, when logs had to be transported. Mostly the Shire is black or bay in color, with straight, silky white feathering over their lower legs. But they can also be grey or brown. They have relatively long necks for draught horses, and their necks run into deep, sloping, wide shoulders. The back of the Shire is short and muscular and it has broad, wide hindquarters. Their legs are thick, hardy and also muscular. The hocks should be broad, flat and correctly set for optimum leverage.
Temperament:
The Shire breed of horse is known as the gentle giants. They are easy-going, docile horses.
Height:
The Shire breed of horse is taller than 17 hands or 70 inches at the withers. Some grow to 19 hands making it the tallest horse in the world.
Weight:
The Shire breed of horse is one of the biggest horses in the world. It is extremely heavy and any one individual horse can weigh more than 2,205 pounds.
Health Problems:
The Shire breed of horse is sometimes prone to a condition called Polysaccharide Storage Myopathy (PSSM) or more commonly, Shivers. Fortunately it is not very common, and not life threatening. The condition affects the hind legs only. What happens is that when the horse is startled or the leg is touched or handled (for example if it is being bandaged or someone is working with the hooves), it is flexed in an exaggerated way and it literally starts to shiver. The horse will tend to lean over the weight-bearing leg when this happens, so much so that it can cause the horse to fall over. In very extreme cases the tail, forelegs, eyes and ears might shiver as well.
Living Conditions:
The Shire breed of horse does not require special attention. The living conditions (or stabling) of these horses will generally depend on whether it is a work horse or not.
Exercise:
The Shire breed of horse gets its exercise in work.
Life Expectancy:
The Shire breed of horse will generally live to anything from 25 to 30 years.
Grooming:
The Shire breed of horse has a lovely sleek coat, with a thick mane, tail and feathers on its feet. Trimming of the feathers and the mane is not permitted. But good grooming is necessary to ensure that no bacterial infections develop under their thick hair.
Origin:
The Shire breed of horse was traditionally bred in the English countries of Leicestershire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire and the Fen country of Lincolnshire. Undoubtedly this is where it got its name from! It all started when the English Fens in the first half of the 17th century. Dutch contractors brought along their own big, wide-footed horses (possibly Friesians) to provide the sheer strength and weight needed for the heavy work. And it was these horses that provided a foundation for breeding the Shire horse. During that period of time, very large, black horses called the Lincolnshire Blacks were very well known.
There is not always total agreement about the origins of the horses from which the Shire breed of horse is descended. Some say that they are descended from the great horse used in medieval times, and that Shires are the purest survivor of this great horse. But others say that the so-called “great horse” was in fact a heavy cob-type horse that only measure about 15.2 hands, which is a far cry from the massive Shires of today.
The English “great horse” was most likely a native development of the British war horse that was praised in histories of the Roman legion when they first landed in Britain. It would also seem that the history of the Shire horse and that of England are certainly intertwined. King John I (who ruled from 1199 to 1216) imported 100 stallions into England from the lowlands of Flanders in Holland. This seems to prove that at least some strains of England's heavy horses owe their origin to these stallions. Then beginning in 1558, with Henry II and Elizabeth I, it was the constant aim of the British Government to increase the size and number of large, strong horses needed for war. A soldier with armor weighed 400 pounds or more! By breeding Shires, England succeeded since they are one of the largest horses in the world.
While useful in war, the Shire horse proved to be even more valuable in peace. The breed became a national British treasure in the 19th Century. They moved the commerce of England off the docks and through the streets of cities. Their great weight and strength were needed as streets of that time in the world were badly paved and all roads were rough. 