English Shires

by Donna Kennedy

Title

English Shires

Artist

Donna Kennedy

Medium

Photograph - Photographs

Description

Original Fine Art Photography by Donna Kennedy
Photographed at the Great Stampede Rodeo in Cedar City, Utah

The Shire horse was the warhorse of England, used by knights in the middle ages. The Shire horse is the purest survivor of an early type that was spoken of as “The Great Horse.” A large, athletic, powerful horse with plenty of stamina was needed to carry the weight of mounted soldiers wearing their heavy battle armor. These horses’ riders could weigh in excess of 400 pounds.
For the past centuries, Shire horses have delivered beer daily in the City Streets of London and performed agricultural tasks on farms throughout the English countryside. They are gentle giants, docile and kind, and have a strong desire to form a bond with the people who handle them. They easily weigh 1800 to 2,000 pounds or more and some stand well over 18 hands. (A “hand” is four inches, the span of a man’s hand, and is measured from the highest point on the horse’s withers, the top of its shoulders, to the ground. That computes to an 18.2 hand high horse will be 6 feet, 2 inches tall at the withers)
Shires come in several different colors. Some may be black, bay, or gray. They usually have a blaze face and some white markings on their lower legs and feet. A characteristic feature of the Shire breed is abundant hair (called feathers) below the knees and hocks. Their foals will weigh 125-150 pounds at birth.
Shires have been used for every discipline from warhorse, farming, commercial carriage and wagon driving, commercial logging, dressage, trail riding and breeding.
The Shire horse registry of England was established in 1878. The first Shires were imported from England to the United States around the middle of the 18th century. The American Shire-Horse Registry was established in 1888.
There are approximately 4,000 registered English Shire horses left in the world today. If they were not domesticated animals, they well could be on the endangered species list.
The largest horse in recorded history was probably a Shire named Mammoth (also known as Sampson), born in 1848. He stood 21.2 1⁄4 hands high, and his peak weight was estimated at 3,360 pounds. At over 19 hands, a Shire gelding named Goliath was the Guinness Book of World Record holder for the world's tallest horse until his death in 2001.

Thank you to the Administrators that Featured this photo in the following Groups:
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September 10th, 2018

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