Shire History

History of the Shire Horse

Written by Arlin Wareing (2026)

The Shire breed didn’t have a beginning date, but rather was developed over a period of many
years by means of selective breeding. Walter Bilbey, a late 1800’s author and Shire owner,
theorized the beginning was at the time of Christ when the Romans invaded England, and
occupied the country for slightly over 400 years. This theory has been found to be non-factual.
Most historians, including Kieth Chivers, who was commissioned by the Shire Horse Society to
research and write a history of the breed found 1066 AD as one of the first branches of this
giant genetic tree.

It was in 1066 AD when William the Conquer, a Frenchman, conquered England at the Battle Of
Hastings. France then ruled England for the following 300 years. One of the main reasons for
his victory was the large number of Percheron type heavy horses used in the battle. These
horses date back to the year 732 AD, at the Battle of Tours in France. Here the Muslim country
of Arabia invaded France with Arabian horses. The Arabians lost the battle, and their horses
were given to the farmers of Flanders, which was part of France. Those horses were crossed on
the native stock, and the result of that cross became the Percheron breed. During the French
rule of England, large Percheron breeding farms were established. This was also the time of the
“knights”. The term knight was originally a military rank, but in later years they became sort of an
elite police group. The horses they rode were mainly Percheron, with maybe a little Friesian
blood added. They became known as the Great War Horse. Chivers said, “These horses were
about 16 hands and weighed 12 to 13 hundred pounds”.

In the late 1500’s the daughter of Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, became Queen of England. During her
reign, and years to follow, England became an industrial world power mainly due to the energy
of heavy horses. Many thousands of horses were imported from many European countries to
best fill hundreds of different jobs. The draining of the Fens was one of the larger uses. Chivers
put 1635 AD as the beginning of the Shire breed.

Government records show the number of horses coming into the country, but no record of where
they went. One of the largest numbers were the horses coming from Flanders, however, there
were at least 12 distinctive different types. One of those types later became known as the
Suffolk horses in England, as well as the American Belgian. Yet another type being those
resembling the Brabant. This was the type imported to drain the Fens and farm the land after it
was drained.

Through select breeding practices all those different types were combined by the early 1800’s,
into thirty-two different types, all were later known as Shires. By the time the Shire Horse
Society was formed in 1878, they were down to only two. Those of heavy bone, with a massive
amount of feather, from the Fens were known as Lincolnshire. The Farmers Club, whose
members were larger landowners with political power, began the move for a registry.
They wanted only those Lincolnshire types. The other type was known as Leicestershire, and
they were not included. A major dispute took place between the two groups. The result was the
first Studbook. It contained 1900 Lincolnshire and 1000 Leicestershire Stallions. The Americans,
Canadians, and Scotchman all preferred Leicestershire and many were exported out of
England. This made the members of the Farmers Club happy. Because of the large numbers
that came to the US, the importers ran out of horses they preferred. By 1900 it is estimated
there were still a million Shires in England, with 300,000 in London alone.

World War I began in 1914 and thousands of heavy horses were sent to Europe to be part of the
war efforts. When the war was over, nearly half a million had been killed, and nearly that many
more were left in Europe. Of those, some were given to local farmers, but most were killed for
human food.

Back in England the large landowners were gone, and the small farmer breeders all preferred
the remaining Leicestershire type. For the next ten years there was a slight build up until World
War II started in 1929, and then even more were lost. When that war ended in the mid 1940’s,
all the Lincolnshire type Shires were gone. With little need for horsepower, numbers dropped to
only about 1000 Shires by the 1960’s.

In America, after the big importers discontinued importing Shires, interest in the breed dropped.
Shire horses here were also sent to fight the two wars. Numbers dropped rapidly with modern
machinery taking over farming. Nearly all Shires were gone by 1950 and the ASHA failed. In
1965 Edwin Henken, from Washington State, reestablished ASHA with only 25 Shires being left
in the US. Two years later a yearling colt, Jim’s Chieftain, was imported by Arlin Wareing, and
again the breed began to increase in numbers. That same colt provided renewed interest in
England. Since that time, dedicated and knowledgeable Shire breeders have developed some
of the finest draft horses ever known to man.