Shire horse

The Shire is a breed of draught horse originally from England. The Shire has a great capacity for weight-pulling; it was used for farm work, to tow barges at a time when the canal system was the principal means of goods transport, and as a cart-horse for road transport. One traditional use was for pulling brewer's drays for delivery of beer, and some are still used in this way; others are used for forestry, for riding and for commercial advertising. Shires have held some of the world records for the largest horse and for the tallest horse.

The Shire breed was established in the mid-eighteenth century in England, and a breed society and stud-book were established in the 1870s.^: 287 Today, there are stud-books and breed associations in the United Kingdom, Australia, the United States,^: 502 and Canada.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, there were large numbers of Shires, and many were exported to the United States. With the progressive mechanisation of agriculture and of transport, the need for draught horses decreased rapidly and by the 1960s numbers had fallen from a million or more to a few thousand. Numbers began to increase again from the 1970s, but the breed is still considered "at risk" by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust.