The heavy mob

11 min read

RIDING HEAVIES

War horse, cart horse, farm horse and drum horse. Heavy horses have been prized for their strength and size for centuries, but now these giants of the horse world have a new role — under saddle — and they are excelling at it. Charlotte Cooper finds out just what they can do

Derbyshire-based Francesca Raynor is just one of an increasing number of riders who are having fun in the saddle of larger equines

BRING ON THE HEAVYWEIGHTS

Weighing in at around 1 tonne and reaching heights of 18hh and more, British heavy horse breeds used to be a common sight in town and country, pulling everything from ploughs and hay carts to milk floats and fire engines. The Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) estimates that there were 2.6m heavy horses working in agriculture and trade at the start of the 20th century, many of them Suffolk Punches, Clydesdales, or Shires and their crosses. But following two world wars, mechanisation and the rise of the tractor and van and they all but disappeared. In 2018, the RBST launched a Heavy Horse Appeal after just 240 Shire, 199 Clydesdale and 25 Suffolk pedigree foals were registered in 2017. They feared that native heavy horse breeds would go extinct. Today numbers are improving, but all three breeds are on the latest RSBT Watchlist — the Shire and Clydesdale deemed to be ‘at risk’ and the Suffolk in the most endangered category, a ‘priority’ breed. In 1966, the numbers of pure bred Suffolk Punches hit rock bottom, with just nine foals registered. Numbers have risen since 2018—when the RBST claimed that the Suffolk horse was rarer than the giant panda — and 33 foals have been registered so far in 2023, 19 of which are fillies. But the Suffolk remains the rarest of the heavy breeds and is a priority breed for conservation, with fewer than 500 horses in total in the UK.

“PEOPLE THINK THAT heavy horses are just big plods and only good for riding as weight carriers. That makes me cross as it’s totally wrong,” says Annie Rose who runs Cumbrian Heavy Horses, a Lake District business where clients ride some of the 21 heavies on site. Annie started her business offering riding holidays and excursions on heavies more than a decade ago to show people how responsive and underrated a well trained, ridden heavy horse can be. She owns nine Suffolk Punches and bred two foals this year. She says that some Suffolks can be a little anxious, making them “challenging” and “quirky” to work with on the ground, but they still make stunning riding horses with showy paces. Annie is a real ambassador for heavy horses and balks at the suggestion that they are less exciting to ride than finer animals. “They are stunning and fabulous,” she continues. “The first thing people say when they come to the yard is ‘wow’ when they see how magnificent they are and, once they ride them, they are blown away. When properly schooled they are re

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Your Horse Magazine

17 August 2023

Horse & Hound

‘it’s about guiding, not nagging’

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