SHIRE HORSES AT ISLINGTON.
THE Londoner's comment on the "English elephants" shown this week at the Agricultural Hall is that they are "all alike." So they are in general form and appearance; and as, unlike the distinct and varied breeds of pedigree cattle, they are all intended for the same purpose, the result is a triumph for those who, since the Shire Horse Society was formed, have spent time and money in producing them.
This year the total number exhibited is five hundred and fifty-three. In 1880, when the show was first held, it was one hundred and sixty-five, and the increase of numbers shown is a measure of the rise and growth of the latest, and perhaps the most promising, of the great English industries of breeding pedigree stock, for which this century has been so remarkable. The show, though the entries are so large, is not impressive as a spectacle. All the stallions are shut up in high loose-boxes, and can only be visited separately. The mares are in stalls; and though both are in high condition, with plaited manes and tails, the back views so obtained suggest little but the fact of -enormous propulsive powers, and the use of a pair of steps for getting on their backs. When alongside them in the stalls and boxes the impression of bulk is equally great, and the meekness with which they " get over " when smacked is almost as surprising as the obedience of an elephant. When taken out some new discovery has dictated that their backs and loins shall be thickly covered with saw-
• dust to prevent their catching cold. Consequently a group of a dozen in the ring suggest recollections of magnums of tawny port in a wine-merchant's window. As an unconventional index of their size the following figures taken from the measurements of a prize mare and prize stallion are somewhat interesting. Feet and inches give a clearer idea of dimensions to most minds, so we substitute them for hands. Taking the lady shire horse first, we find that she measures 5 ft. 6 in. at the shoulder, 8 in. across the hollow of her front foot, 8 ft. 2 in.-98 in.—round her " waist." She weighs 181 cwt., and is not fat. Her " hair," which is 5 ft. long, is plaited, so that its beauties do not show; but her complexion, dappled brown and glossy, is perfection.
At the other end of the hall a prize stallion, ten years .old, and therefore fully mature, was measured with the following results :—Height at the shoulder, 5 ft. 8 in. with a " waist " measurement of 8i ft. His weight, 1 ton 1i cwt. His shoe measured 21 in. round from heel to heel, to which the space between the calkins must be added. The stallion's height sometimes runs to 18 hands, and a mane G ft. long is not uncommon. The average shire horse begins work in the country at four years old, and at five and a half years old goes to town, where two do the work of three ordinary draught-horses, and save the cost of stabling for one. The pedigrees of 16,480 stallions and 22,768 mares are recorded in the "Shire Horse Stud Book." This is not a mere catalogue, but has a practical object. Though " like breeds like," it is found by experience that the animals of oldest descent, when a breed is once established, produce the most uniform stock. This rule is what the foreign buyer relies on, and it is the world outside England on whom our breeders mainly rely to make the demand for our shire horses keep pace with the supply. Ten years ago three hundred foals were bought for Germany, six hundred " certificates " of exported sires were issued for America, and it was in evidence that many hundreds of farmers in the worst times of the agricultural depression paid their rents from the produce of pedigree mares working on their farms. Since then the demand has risen by leaps and bounds, and the value of the animals has steadily increased. In no long time the prices must fall, because the number of pedigree animals will be beyond measure increased. But the financial result, spread over a wider field, will be even more satisfactory than at present, just as the broad improvement of short-horn cattle has added to the wealth not of individuals, but of the country,— it has raised the value of Irish exported cattle, for instance, by some £3 per head. At present the prices for shire horses are steadily rising, both for actual work and for breeding. Last week Mr. Freeman Mitford, this year's President of the Society, obtained seven hundred and twenty guineas for a six-year-old stallion, three hundred and twenty guineas for a three-year-old mare, and two hundred and ten guineas for a yearling filly. At Lord Wastage's sale on February 10th no less than eight hundred guineas was paid for a six-year-old mare. Messrs. Clark and Griffin, farmers, were as successful in their recent sale as their wealthier competitors, making an average of £150 for their shire horses. The " man in the street " would scarcely believe that the big, slow horses in the railway-van are often more valuable than the showy animals in the landau which passed them ; but this is often the case, and the former justify their price by work done. In developing the size of these horses only one serious drawback has been en- countered by the breeders. Their enormous weight causes a tendency to an ossification of the side cartilage of the foot, which is called " side-bone." One of the main objects of the Shire Horse Society is to " breed away from side-bone," and it is to their success in this that the popularity of the breed is largely due. Hence the importance of pedigree, and inci- dentally the delay in awarding prizes in the present show, for every animal had to pass a rigorous " medical examina- tion " before its merits were considered. A second, and not less important, form of soundness in these animals is temper. " Temperament " is perhaps the truer word. In combining this mental characteristic with modifications in size and strength the breeders have met with little resistance from nature. If the " nerves " of the ordinary thoroughbred or hackney were possessed by the giant shire horse, it would have been as unsafe to use for street traffic as a Highland bull, and almost as dangerous as a stampeding elephant. If its nerves did not occasionally cause it to bolt with a two-ton van behind it, the everyday fidgeting, stamping, and trotting which ordinary equine temperament demands in the lighter horses would strain the legs and rain the hoofs which have to bear the burden of its bulk. As things are, the temper of the great horse has grown milder and easier as its size has increased. This is largely due to nature, for the shire horse is descended, without Arab or thoroughbred crosses, from the heavy war-horse of the days of armour. But the avoidance of repeating any cross from which temper has resulted must also be credited to the breeders' experience. The nature of their work does not ordinarily disturb this innate equanimity. They are never urged to speed. On the other hand, they are constantly required to make sudden exertions in pulling and hauling great weights, exertions which require as much resolution on the part of the horse, and urging by the " driver," as efforts of speed. Yet the shire horse works entirely by the voice. He is never struck with the whip ; a hand on the reins by his mouth, a friendly pull, and a word or two, are enough to make him exert a muscular power greater than that of any other domesticated animal bnt the elephant. This docility has been acquired without loss of courage or intelligence. Men who have been employed for twenty years in superin- tending the shire horse at work say that he never knows when he is beaten. The most trying work he is employed in is that of carting earth from excavations, or loads of stone and material to line cuttings and reservoirs. To do so he draws his loads not over roads of macadam or stone, but over yielding earth or clay. The load has usually to be started up an incline, yet the horse obeys orders, and will renew the effort again and again at the word of command. The camel, which often refuses to move if overloaded, is perhaps wiser in its generation. The intelligence of the shire horse is not only not less, but greater, than that of most breeds. This is partly due to its constant association with its carter in work other than mere monotonous driving. The cleverness of the shire horses on the railway is matter of common observation. But the quiet wits of the contractors' horses are less well known. An instance, noticed while a new reservoir was being dug last year above the grounds of the Ranelagh Club, gives some idea of the intelli- gence which " informs " these colossal horses. Heavy loads of earth from an excavation were being raised in a "hopper" and dropped into a " tipping-cart." This was run violently along some rough rails, and at the last moment a pin was loosened, and the earth shot over the end of the embankment. Instead of being pushed by an engine, the cart was pulled, at the highest speed that could be raised, by a young shire horse. To " work the machine " it had first to start the cart full of earth, to rush it along at a half-trot, half-canter, and at the last moment to jump on one side off the line, to have its hauling-chain detached by an automatic slip jerked by the driver, and to let the one and a quarter tons of earth and the truck rush past it and bang against the chocks at the end of the rail, spilling the earth from the hopper. If he failed to spring aside at the last moment he would be jammed between the trolly and the blocks, or thrown over the slope of the embankment. The side-spring had to be made when going fast and using great exertion. The horse was very excited, but never "lost its head," or showed the least inclination to shirk the work. Its driver, or rather attendant, had taught it to do this in four days, and the horse, though very large, was only a four-year-old. But Lord Herbert of Cherbury wrote the character of the " great horse " of England more than two hundred years ago, and noted that he was a creature "made above all others for the service of man." Among other accomplishments he taught him to run at a figure dressed in bright armour, and knock it over "in the midst of a field."
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