Heavy Horses

The Miniature Pony Centre is home to two gentle giants, Buster the Shire horse and Harris the Suffolk Punch.

If you would like to know more about our heavy horse experience days please click here

Heavy Horses in the Past

The heavy horse will always be associated with the English countryside, often featuring on greetings cards and in paintings, mainly as a working horse in years gone by.

They were put to use on the farm and pulling heavy loads, in many cases taking over from oxen.

The Industrial Revolution saw a network of canals being built and the Shire was the ideal horse to pull barges.  Even with the introduction of the railways, horses were still used to transport goods to and from railway yards.

In the late 19th century, there were 19,000 horses being used by carrier firms in London and a further 1,500 were used to collect the capital’s rubbish.  The breweries used about 3,000 heavy horses, all of which were draught breeds.

From the 1920s onwards, the use of motorised transport grew, and tractors replaced horses on farms and lorries replaced the horse-drawn wagon.

The heavy horse’s days seemed numbered as numbers fell from more than a million to a few thousand in the 1960s, and the breeds were in serious danger of extinction.  However, a small group of dedicated breeders came to the rescue and the heavy horse is now seeing a resurgence in popularity.

Heavy Horses Today

Forestry and timber extraction is one area where the use of draught horses has increased, as their hooves are far less damaging than tyres, particularly in areas of sensitive flora and fauna.

Ploughing matches, which themselves almost disappeared in the 1960s have seen a renewed growth again, with horses playing their part. Shires are also competing more in modern activities such as skills tests, obstacle driving and cross-country trials.

Shires feature in many heavy horse centres, farm parks and museums around the country.  Some local authorities have started to use heavy horses for jobs such as park maintenance, as well as promotional purposes.  Many breweries still keep horses for promotional work and local deliveries.

The resurgence in popularity of all the heavy horse breeds may be small, but is still vitally important, not just for the breeds themselves, but for preventing many old skills being lost - horsemanship and associated trades such as harness-makers and farriers.

It is vital that the promotion of heavy horse breeds continues so that we don't loose these magnificent horses forever.