The Shire Horse in Peace and War — Story, Setting & Ideas

w in August, 1889; but scores of farmers could muster a team or two of good Shire mares; therefore it is obvious that, whatever the future of the Shire may be, English farmers will do much towards shaping it.

As this little book is intended for farmers more than for stud owners, a better heading for this chapter would have been “Selecting the Dams,” for without sound, useful mares no breeder can hope to achieve success with the horses he breeds.

It has been possible to grade up one’s old stock of mares by using registered stallions until they were eligible for the Stud Book; but this is too tedious a course to recommend in these days; moreover, the demand for draught mares is now so keen that the difference in the price of a pedigree and a common non-pedigree mare is scarcely worth considering. Therefore the beginner who wishes to breed pedigree Shires should dispose of his unregistered mares to re-invest his money in females which are worth mating with a really good sire, so that the full benefits of the industry may be more quickly forthcoming.

Of course there is a wide range of choice in Shire mares; consequently there is plenty of scope for the skill and judgment of the purchaser. Those which are fashionably bred, perfectly sound and likely to make prize winners usually realize high prices, while prizes already won add considerably to the market value of any Shire, male or female.

One must decide according to his means whether he will launch out and buy one or two of the most famous mares to be obtained, or whether he will proceed cautiously, and with as little outlay as possible, by picking up useful specimens as they come under his notice; but it may be pointed out that the man who attends sales and gives sensational prices advertises himself, thus getting a more favourable start than the plodder.

The initial, or foundation, stock, whatever its cost, should be free from hereditary unsoundness, otherwise disappointment will be encountered in the offspring.

It is much more easy to find sound Shires now than it was in the early years of the Shire Horse Society, when the rejections for unsoundness were very numerous, as the following extract from a show report of the past will prove:--“The judges selected ten horses to be sent out for veterinary inspection in the hope, vain though it proved to be, that at least half of them would be again found in the ring with a certificate of soundness, so that no difficulty would be experienced in securing sufficient sound animals to which they could award the three prizes and the reserve number. Not so, however; and the stewards were compelled to seek in the boxes for other horses to be sent out for examination in order that the rosettes might be placed.”

Unsoundness on such a scale has long ceased to exist, largely through the efforts of the Shire Horse Society in sticking to their rule of giving prizes and commendations to sound animals only.

This does not imply that unsoundness cannot be found in the Shires of to-day. Unfortunately it is still possible to buy a mare, or use a stallion, with undesirable and readily inherited complaints; therefore it is very necessary for farmers--who wish to make their Shires do a share towards paying the rent--to discriminate between a sound and an unsound horse, or mare, or to decide for himself whether to take or refuse a blemished animal. There are many of the latter which often prove a good investment, and as a veterinary surgeon cannot always be found at a moment’s notice it is desirable for breeders to make themselves acquainted with the conformation of a sound and perfectly moulded animal, so as to be able to rely on one’s own judgment when buying or selling.

Shire Horse history has proved that the purchase of one sound mare with good back breeding has led to fame and fortune, a fact which should not be forgotten when home breeding is being embarked upon or extended.

THE SELECTION OF SIRES

The question of mating is one of great importance in the breeding of any class of live stock, hence the necessity of rejecting a commonplace sire whether he is to be purchased or only patronized for nominations.

The cheap sire is common enough even in these days, and the fact that his services cost little gives him a popularity altogether unmerited and very injurious to the best interests of Shire breeding. Quite recently I saw twenty quarters of wheat delivered by a small farmer from whom it was purchased. In one of the carts I was surprised to find a five-year-old stallion, light in bone, pale chestnut in colour, and quite small--just the sort to haul guns or baggage to “the front” at the present time, but obviously unfit to serve a mare if a weighty cart horse was expected as the result. Yet the owner claimed to have got a lot of mares to this horse for the past two seasons. This sort of thing going on all over the country, naturally lowers the standard. A farmer saves a yearling colt because he “likes the look of it.” At two years old he uses him on his own mares and invites his neighbours to send theirs, the terms being something like £1 each mare, or, perhaps, “No colt, no pay,” and £1 10_s._ if the mare proves to be in foal.

Such a system of breeding may help to increase the horse population, and those bred in this haphazard fashion may find a ready market while a great war is in progress, but it is not Shire breeding in the true sense; therefore a farmer who possesses even a useful mare should not object to paying a reasonable service fee, or, if he uses his neighbour’s horse, he should at least ascertain if he is sound and of good parentage.

The work of the Shire Horse Society is to “improve the Old English Breed of Cart Horses.” It has been carried on for thirty-six years very successfully, notwithstanding the injurious effect wrought by such stallions as that above mentioned, and it rests with the present members of the Shire Horse Society to carry on the work which, as aforesaid, was so well begun and maintained by such men as the late Sir Walter Gilbey, to whom all lovers of Shire Horses are indebted for his book on “The Great Horse,” which gives the history of the breed from the time of the Roman Invasion till the year 1889 (when the first edition of the book appeared), at which date Shire Horse breeding had become a great national industry, that year having been the best on record for the number of export certificates granted. A second edition brings the work up to 1899.

When wealthy stud owners place the best of stallions within the reach of tenant farmers it is a mistake to miss the opportunity, but those less fortunately placed are now able, if they desire to do so, to profit by the Development Grant of the State, which enables them to get mares to sound--if not front rank--stallions at low fees or by assisted nominations. That a horse breeder should be content to mate his mares with a mongrel when it is easily possible to aim higher seems difficult to understand in these days when pedigree means so much in market value.

For the production of geldings, fashionable blood is not essential, but it sometimes happens that a foal of outstanding merit is bred by quite a small farmer, and if such an one is by a well-known sire of prize-winning stock, a real good price may be obtained, if the dam is only registered, so there is much to be said in favour of using the highest type of Shire stallion, even by owners of one or two mares. Fortunately farmers are able to secure special terms for their mares from most stud owners, and there are many local societies which hire a real good horse and charge a smaller sum to their own members than to outsiders. Among such societies may be mentioned Peterborough, Welshpool, and Winslow, in all of which districts many high-class Shires have been bred. Then there are generous landlords who hire a real good horse for the benefit of their tenants--although not Shire breeders themselves--so that it is quite possible for the majority of tenant farmers to obtain nominations to one of the best of Shire stallions if he is bent on improvement and believes in being enterprising enough to obtain it. The indifference which leads horse breeders to use a mongrel which comes into the yard, rather than send further afield to a better animal is inexcusable in a member of the Shire Horse Society, neither is such an one likely to improve his financial position by means of his heavy horses, which large numbers of farmers have done during the depressed times. An extra five pounds for a service fee may be, and often is, fifty when the foal is sold.

BREEDING FROM FILLIES

For many years it has been a debatable point whether two-year-old fillies should be bred from or not. The pros and cons have been discussed, and in the end Shire breeders have used their own discretion on the point. Superior animals have, however, been bred from youthful parents on both sides, a notable instance being the late Lord Wantage’s Lady Victoria; her sire was Prince William, the London and Royal Champion, and her dam Glow, by the London Champion Spark. She was the first foal of a two-year-old colt, with a two-year-old filly for her dam, yet she made a great prize-winning mare, having won first and cup in London in 1889 and championship of the Oxfordshire Show in 1890.

It may also be mentioned that Buscot Harold, the London Champion stallion of 1898, was begotten when his sire, Markeaton Royal Harold, was but a two-year-old colt, although his dam, Aurea, was older. At two years old he was preferred to his sire for the Elsenham Challenge Cup.

This proves that Shire breeders have been making good use of fillies for many years, therefore the produce of a three-year-old filly need not be rejected, neither should the nursing of a foal at that age necessarily result in a stunted or plain mare. It is, however, necessary to grow fillies along with the aid of supplementary food and to “do” both them and their foals well while they are suckling.

There is no doubt that the Shires of the present day do get more food and attention than they did in bygone days, when it was unnecessary to strive after showyard size, because shows did not exist in such numbers, so that the farmer who exhibited cart horses was rarely met with, and young horse stock were not fed to encourage size and growth. So long as they could be put into the team at three years old and mated at four, that was considered early enough to work or to breed.

At the present time the horse population of Great Britain and Europe, if not of the whole world, is being reduced by the greatest of all wars, consequently it is desirable for Shire breeders to do their share towards making good the shortage. If fillies are well kept from birth they will attain size and may be mated at two years old to a young horse, but not too early in the season. The end of May is early enough for fillies, and a big heavy old horse should not be chosen under any circumstances. If served at the right time they are more likely to breed than fillies a year older, and it makes a lot of difference whether a five-year-old mare has a couple of sons and daughters or even one to her credit, or no offspring at all, when the profit and loss account is being made up by a farmer.

It may be that a three-year-old cannot be got into a fat state for show with a foal running by her side, but the prolonged rest at that age does her no harm. She will come up all right at a later period, and is more likely to make a regular breeder than if not mated till three years old. A mare which breeds from the age of three till she is fifteen is a great help in the way of production, even if she only averages one foal in two years, which is, perhaps, as many as it is safe to reckon on for rearing to maturity, although, of course, there are plenty of mares which have produced a good foal for ten or eleven years in succession. They will breed till they are twenty-five, to the writer’s knowledge, but the average age at which Shire mares breed their last foal must be put somewhere round fifteen.

There is no doubt that we have learned much in horse management since shows have become so popular, although it may be that high feeding for show purposes has been--and is--the cause of a lower percentage of foals among high class show animals of both sexes.

To prepare fillies for mating at two years old may be compared to feeding for early maturity in cattle and sheep, except that many of the latter are only grown and fattened to be killed, whereas Shires are meant to live a long and useful life. It is, therefore, necessary to build up a frame with this idea in view. An outdoor life should be led, while the food should be both good and sufficient, as well as being suitable.

There is no time to be wasted, and if foals are allowed to get into low condition while being weaned, or during their first winter, they are less fit to make robust two-year-olds fit either to work or to breed, or what is more profitable, to accomplish both of these tasks together during part of the year.

If early maturity is aimed at with any class of stock, feeding and management must be of the best, therefore farmers who half starve their foals and allow their yearlings to be wintered on a bit of hay must not expect their two-year-olds to be well grown and in the best possible condition for parental duties.

The situation at the present time is such that every horse-breeder should do his best to utilize to the full the horse stock which he possesses, so that a sufficient number of horses may be obtained to carry on the agriculture and trade of the country, both of which are likely to require horses in large numbers in the immediate future.

Mares will be relatively more scarce than stallions for the reason that the latter have not been “commandeered” for war purposes, but as geldings have been taken in large numbers, there is, and will be, a great demand for workers of all grades.

Under such circumstances Shire breeders may serve their own interests by mating their fillies with a good young sire at two years old and keeping them in good condition for producing a strong vigorous foal. Very few of Robert Bakewell’s remarks are recorded, but this one is, “The only way to be sure of good offspring is to have good cows as well as good bulls,” and this applies with equal, if not greater, force in the business of horse-breeding; the sire cannot effect the whole of the improvement.

Since my very youthful days I have always been accustomed to putting cart colts into the team at two years old, a system which cannot be too strongly advocated at the present time, when every worker in the shape of a horse is needed.

There are numbers of high-class Shires living a life of luxurious idleness to-day, for the only reason that they were never trained to work, yet they would be quite as well in health, and more likely to breed, if they were helping to do ploughing or almost any kind of farm work when not actually nursing a foal or being prepared for any important show.

When a Shire mare can be sold as “a good worker,” a buyer feels that he is getting something for his money, even if she fails to breed, so that there is much to be said in favour of putting fillies into the team, and nothing against, so far as I know, unless they are over-worked, strained, or stunted.

A non-breeding mare which will not work is an impossible, or useless, sort of animal on a farm, where mere ornaments are not required, whereas if she is a worker in all gears she is “anybody’s mare”; on the other hand, she is nobody’s if she refuses either to work or to breed.

Geldings for haulage purposes are always in demand, but big powerful mares are equally useful for the same purpose, and it is much better to sell a non-breeder for the lorry than to sell her for another breeder to meet with disappointment. It is obvious that there will be a great scarcity of weighty working horses when the countries now involved in war settle down to peaceful trades and occupations, and there is no country which stands to benefit more than Great Britain, which is the best of all breeding grounds for draught horses.

To allow, what would otherwise be, a useful worker to eat the bread of idleness because it was regarded as too well bred or valuable to wear a collar is not a policy to pursue or to recommend, especially to farmers, seeing that the arable land tenant can put a colt into the team, between two steady horses at almost any time of the year, while the occupiers of grass farms may easily start their young Shires as workers by hitching them to a log of wood or some chain harrows, and afterwards work them in a roll.

There is no doubt, whatever, that many stallions would leave a much higher percentage of foals if they were “broken in” during their two-year-old days, so that they would take naturally to work when they grew older and could therefore be relied upon to work and thus keep down superfluous fat. This would be far better than allowing them to spend something like nine months of the year in a box or small paddock with nothing to do but eat.

In past times more working stallions could be found, and they were almost invariably good stock getters, but since showing has become popular it is almost a general rule to keep well-bred, or prize-winning, colts quite clear of the collar lest they should work themselves down in condition and so fail to please possible buyers on the look-out for show candidates.

A little more than twenty years ago there was an outcry against show condition in Shires, and this is what a very eminent breeder of those days said on the subject of fat--

“It is a matter of no consequence to any one, save their owners, when second or third-class horses are laden with blubber; but it is a national calamity when the best animals--those that ought to be the proud sires and dams of an ever-improving race--are stuffed with treacle and drugged with poisons in order to compete successfully with their inferiors. Hence come fever in the feet, diseased livers, fatty degeneration of the heart, and a host of ailments that often shorten the lives of their victims and always injure their constitutions.”

This bears out my contention that Shires of both sexes would pay for a course of training in actual collar work, no matter how blue-blooded as regards ancestry or how promising for the show ring. The fact that a colt by a London champion had been seen in the plough team, or between a pair of shafts, would not detract from his value in the eyes of a judge, or prevent him from becoming a weighty and muscular horse; in fact, it would tend to the development of the arms and thighs which one expects to find in a Shire stallion, and if from any cause a stud or show career is closed, a useful one at honest work may still be carried on.

Wealthy stud owners can afford to pay grooms to exercise their horses, but farmers find--and are more than ever likely to find--that it is necessary to make the best possible use of their men; therefore, if their colts and fillies are put to work and rendered perfectly tractable, they will grow up as stallions which may be worked instead of being aimlessly exercised, while the mares can spend at least half of their lives in helping to carry on the ordinary work of the farm.