The English Great Horse was valued during the reign of Henry VIII, when stallions measuring less than 'fifteen handfuls' could not be kept, but the increasing role of gunpowder brought an end to the use of heavy horses in battle. Oliver Cromwell's calvary favoured lighter, faster mounts and the big horses began to be used for draught work instead. During the 16th century, Dutch engineers brought Friesian horses with them when they came to England to drain the fens, and it is probable that these horses had a significant influence on what became the Shire breed. From this medieval horse came an animal called the Old English Black Horse in the 17th century. The Black Horse was improved by the followers of Robert Bakewell, of Dishley Grange in Leicestershire, resulting in a horse sometimes known as the "Bakewell Black". Bakewell imported six Dutch or Flanders mares, notable since breeders tended to concentrate on improving the male line. Two different types of black horse developed: the Fen or Lincolnshire type and the Leicester or Midlands type. The Fen type tended to be larger, with more bone and extra hair, while the Midlands type tended to have more endurance while being of a finer appearance. The term "Shire horse" was first used in the mid-17th century, and incomplete records begin to appear near the end of the 18th century. The "Packington Blind Horse", from Leicestershire, is one of the best-known horses of the era, with direct descendents being recorded from 1770 to 1832. This horse is usually recognized as the foundation stallion for the Shire breed, and he stood at stud from 1755 to 1770. During the 19th century, Shires were used extensively as cart horses to move goods from the docks through the cities and countryside, where the rough roads created a need for large horses with extensive musculature.
The Shire has an enormous capacity for weight pulling. In 1924, at a British exhibition, a pair of horses was estimated to have pulled a starting load equal to 45 tons, although an exact number could not be determined as their pull exceeded the maximum reading on the dynamometer. Working in slippery footing, the same pair of horses pulled 16.5 tons at a later exhibition. The largest horse in recorded history was probably a Shire named Mammoth(originally called Samson). Sampson, a Shire horse foaled in 1846 in Toddington Mills, Bedfordshire, England, is the tallest horse ever recorded. Owned by Mr Thomas Cleaver, the gelding stood 21.2½ hands high (i.e. 7 ft 2½in or approx 2.2m at his withers) by the time he was a four year old, when he was renamed Mammoth. He was gelded at approximately 1 and a half years old, and his testicles were already the size of softballs. His peak weight was estimated at 3,360 lb (1,520 kg).
Currently, the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy considers the population of the Shire to be at "critical" levels, meaning that the estimated global population of the breed is less than 2,000 and there are less than 200 registrations annually in the US.
- Color: Black, brown, bay, grey or chestnut/sorrel (rare) are the preferred colors. Excessive white markings and roaning are undesirable.
- Height: Minimum 16.2 hands and upwards. Average 17.1 hands
- Head: Long and lean, neither too large nor too small, with long neck in proportion to the body. Large jaw bone should be avoided.
- Eyes: Large, well set and alert.
- Nose: Nostrils thin and wide, lips together and nose slightly Roman.
- Ears: Long, lean, sharp and sensitive.
- Throat: Clean cut and lean.
- Shoulder: Deep, oblique, wide enough to support the collar.
- Neck: Long, slightly arched, well set on to give the horse a commanding appearance.
- Girth: Deep, with adequate width in proportion to the rest of the body.
- Back: Short, strong and muscular. Should not be dipped or roached.
- Loins: Standing well up, denoting constitution.
- Fore-end: Wide across the chest, with legs well under the body and well developed in muscle, or action is impeded.
- Hindquarters: Long and sweeping, wide and full of muscle; well let down toward the thighs.
- Ribs: Round, deep and well sprung, not flat.
- Forelegs: Should be straight as possible down to the pastern.
- Pastern: Fairly long and sloped at about 45-degree angle.
- Hind legs: Hocks should be clean, broad, deep, flat and wide when viewed broad-side; set at the correct angle for leverage, and in line with the hind·quarters. Should be of heavy bone; "puffy" and "sickle" hocks to be avoided. The leg should be clean cut, hard, and clear of short cannon bone.
- Feet: Moderately deep and wide at the heels; coronets open.
- Feather: Fine, straight and silky.
- He should possess a masculine head, and a good crest with sloping, not upright, shoulders running well into the back, which should be short and well coupled with the loins. The tail should be set well up, and not what Is known as "goose-rumped." Both head and tail should be carried erect. The ribs should be well sprung, not flat sided, with good middle, which generally denotes good constitution. The most essential parts of a stallion are his feet and joints; the feet should have open necks, big around the top of the coronets, with plenty of length in the pasterns. When in motion, he should go with force, using both knees and hocks, which the latter should be kept close together. He should go straight and true before and behind.
Credit Wikipedia, and shirehorse.org. Added to and composed extensively by myself.