Welcome to Shire Knight
Shire Knight
The Shire Horse is among the oldest and largest breed of horses. Their history can be traced back to the chariot horses of the Britons around 2000 years ago and admired by Julius Caesar.
The Shire Horse has had a variety of names in the past, the Great Horse, the Strong Horse and the War Horse – as it was most commonly known as. The breed was strengthened by crossing with imported horses like the Friesian and in 1066 William the Conqueror used these horses as armoured tanks carrying up to 205 kilograms, of man and armour. As people advanced and began inventing better weapons like guns and cannons, the War Horse became redundant for war purposes and they were used for other work, carting heavy loads and agricultural work.
Around 1840s their name was changed to the English Cart Horse and 1880s to the Shire.
The Stud book for the Stallions can be traced back to the 1800s. The smaller Clydesdale Horse in Scotland also started using the Shire Stallion around this time to increase the heaviness in their breed.
The Shire was brought to New Zealand in the early 1900s, by the 1930s and after WW2 the numbers were slowly declining world wide because of the use of motor vehicles and tractors; the Shire was considered a trifle too heavy and expensive to keep. By the 1960s there were only a few thousand Shire Horses registered in the world. The last 30years numbers have been slowly increasing with the Shire Horse Society receiving about 500 registrations annually. Here in New Zealand there are less than hundred pure breed Shires.
The Shire is well known for stamina and strength and is used in the breeding of heavy hunter horses. Not normally recognised as a riding horse, the Shire was breed for this purpose, having naturally powerful hind quarters on long legs with dense bones.
Shires can be black or grey with silky hair mainly white on the lower part of their legs - which indicated pure blood. Now days the Shire Horse can also be brown and bay. A Stallion can weigh around 1 tonne and average 18hh, Mares and Geldings are generally smaller in size.
Not only are the Shires known for their power and strength they are also know as being a real Gentle Giant and have a wonderful nature and a heart as kind and as big as they are – this is why we want to show New Zealand how great these horses are, a proud symbol of our heritage.
Feel free to contact us here at Shire Knight for any enquiries.