Dreading 7 weeks of political posturing? Cheer yourself up with this timeless image of a farmer who shuns tractors for shire horses
IF YOU’RE already fed up with political horse-trading and the whinnying of MPs, then this wonderful image could be just the antidote.
Focused, organised, and all pulling in the same direction, these five magnificent shire horses are a far cry from Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.
In a throwback to a bygone age, farmer Jonathan Waterer uses them to plough his fields – refusing to turn to gas-guzzling tractors as he believes the horse-drawn methods of the 18th and 19th centuries are better for the environment.
Shire horses have given centuries of service to man in work and war, but their agricultural heyday has long past and numbers in the UK have plummeted.
But Mr Waterer has rejected modern equipment, and for the past 1 years he has preferred to use the shire horses along with traditional agricultural machinery that he has bought from Amish communities in the US.
The trusty steeds weigh nearly a ton each, stand at well over 18 hands tall and have remarkable stamina, allowing them to work well into their 0s.
They can mow an average of ten acres of grass a day on Mr Waterer’s 100-acre Higher Biddacott Farm near Barnstaple, in North Devon. The horses require only oats and grass to fuel themselves.
By contrast, the farmer next door uses four tractors and the same number of workers to do the same job. Mr Waterer, 57, said: ‘I’ve worked with horses all my life, ever since I was a boy.
‘I break in 30 to 40 horses a year and this is the best way to get them going. I can put a young horse between two of my shires to get it to work as a team.
‘There are only a few of us still plough- ing with shire horses. I saw my next door farmer using four John Deere tractors and we asked each other, “I wonder which one of us has got it right!” The traditional method may be more time-consuming than using tractors but it is our identity and I believe we reap the benefits.’
In the 18th and 19th centuries there
‘I believe we reap the benefits’
were more than 1million shire horses across Britain, and they were the main source of power in agriculture.
In the late 19th century there were thought to be thousands of shire horses used by breweries in London, while they were also needed for transportation of coal.
In the First World War, the animals were sent to the front to pull heavy artillery and thousands were killed in action.
Tractors and lorries hastened their decline, and by the 1950s there were only a few thousand left. And last year the Rare Breeds Survival Trust estimated that there were just 1,500 of the horses left worldwide.
The ancestors of shire horses were brought to Britain in 1066 by William the Conqueror, when they were used in war to carry knights wearing armour.