Our passion when we aren’t busy elsewhere lies with the Shire horses; both showing and supplying general and bespoke equine services.
You can see us at many events throughout the year including local, county and national shows, demonstrating the beauty of the breed.
Guy Wadsworth spent a great deal of his life with the horses and with that time built up one-off and irreplaceable sets of show harness which are truly unique and quite possibly priceless as today they would be impossible to replace. To clean one set to show standard takes one man a total of eight hours.
Our horses are available for fete’s demonstrations, show pieces or as a ‘static’ display. They really are a crowd pleaser and truly are ‘gentle giants’.
Shire Horses
About the Shire Horse (Taken from the Shire Horse Society website)
The Shire Horse as a breed has had a fascinating history, and its development had been inextricably linked the development of the Society we know today.
“The Shire horse: A magnificent animal – tall, gentle, noble and immensely strong – loved by many.”
Because Shire Horses are so calm and placid, we do not think that they would be good in wars. However, it is because of war that the Shire horse came into being.
Native British horses were quite small and light, like the ponies you can still see in wild in places like the New Forest, Dartmoor and Exmoor. When knights started wearing heavy suits of armour the horses were unable to carry them.
Heavier breeds from the Continent (especially Holland, Germany and Flanders in modern day Belgium) were introduced to Britain and the Great Horse (also known as the War Horse) first came into being.
Eventually warfare changed and soldiers no longer wore heavy suits of armour, but this did not mean that the Great Horse was no longer needed. It was soon recognised that their great strength and placid nature would make them useful on the farm and for pulling heavy loads.
They soon took over the jobs previously done by oxen on farms, such as ploughing. Horses were faster and more intelligent than oxen and could also work in forestry.
The Industrial Revolution saw the construction of a nationwide system of canals which enabled heavy loads to be transported long distances. The Shire was the ideal horse to use, towing the barges along the canals. They were also used to haul large wagons, drays, omnibuses and trams.
Soon however, technology developed and the need for the horse declined. The first blow was the rise of the railway, meaning less goods were transported by barge. Then came the tractor, replacing horses on farms. Finally more and more road vehicles were powered by engines and the Shire horse’s days soon seemed numbered.
Shire horse numbers fell from well over a million to just a few thousand by the 1960s and the breed was in serious trouble. A small group of dedicated breeders came to rescue though and the Shire is seeing a resurgence in popularity both as a working animal and a riding horse.