Shire Horses Face Extinction

29th January, 2009

Shire Horses a once familiar sight in the countryside of Britain and on the streets of major cities before motor transport was around, is now facing the possibility of extinction, due to a big decrease in heavy horse breeders. Even less than 100 years ago they were so vital to the country that in the First World War hundreds of thousands of them were killed in the Allied war effort in the battlefields of France. Numbers decreased throughout the 20th century as farms slowly phased them out as they became more mechanised.

Today only a few thousand remain, looked after by enthusiasts, farming museums etc. Due to their vast size, they cost a lot to keep. Feed alone can run into hundreds of pounds a month. The situation is even worse for a related horse the Suffolk Punch, only 100 remain, which makes them rarer than the Giant Panda, and they face the real possibility of extinction in the near future.

Dawn Teverson of the Rare Breeds Survival Trust said "Heavy horses are so large that most normal people with normal levels of resources cannot look after them.

"They have to be really committed and it is a big responsibility. The Suffolk Punch is the rarest of all the breeds, there are just over 100 breeding mares left which is a tiny figure.

"A lot of the mares are used as show animals which means they aren't breeding, and you also can't guarantee that a mare will produce a foal every year.

"All of these factors and many more have contributed to their current plight."