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The massive Shire horse was developed in the United Kingdom's
Fen counties and in the Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Staffordshire. This is
quite obviously how it got its name. These horses can be traced back to the
English Great Horse of the Middle Ages, and also to the primitive Forest Horse.
Throughout the 17th century, many Flanders Horses and Friesians were brought
over to England by the Dutch contractors, who were employed to work on the land
reclamation going on in the Fens. Both of the previously mentioned breeds had a
considerable effect on the development of the Shire.
Interbreeding between the Great Horse, the Friesian, and
finally the Flanders, produced the English Black, so named by Oliver Cromwell.
This new breed was much larger than the Great Horse, although it exhibited many
of the features of the Flanders horse and the predominantly black coloring
passed down from the Friesian. The Shire's foundation sire is believed to be
Packington Blind, who sired the first Shires to appear in the studbook of 1878.
The Shire Horse Society was formed in 1884. Until World War Two, an incredible
number of Shires were registered every year during that time period. They became
very popular horses, mainly due to their extreme pulling power. This has not yet
been surpassed by any other horse breed. These horses are used for all different
kinds of agricultural tasks. After the second World War, the number of Shires
decreased dramatically, although recently there has been an interest revival.
This is partly due to the support of beer breweries, who continue to use the
Shire throughout the country for demonstrations and shows.
This breed is known for its docile, gentle nature, which
makes them quite easy to handle despite their size. For appearance's sake they
are big-barreled horses with long legs. Their legs are known for lots and lots
of feathering. They have fairly attractive heads that often are Roman-nosed and
honest-looking. There is a lot of space between their eyes, which are
intelligent and kind. They have kind of small, alert ears and a longish,
slightly arched neck.
They have good, strong, sloping shoulders and rounded
muscular quarters Generally they are black, bay, gray, chestnut, and brown. Most
of the time they have white on their legs and faces, and they stand up to 18
hands high. There are even recorded cases of Shires exceeding this height! The
tallest known horse was a Shire gelding named Sampson. He was foaled in 1846,
measured 21.2 hands high, and weighed 3,360 pounds. That's a big horse!!
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