Traditional versus Modern

This excellent photograph, taken 66 years ago, shows the late Jim Cradock with James Forshaw & Sons’ celebrated stallion, The Dean, setting forth on his route from Wem, Shropshire, in April 1938.  Mr Cradock travelled stallions for many years on behalf of the renowned Carlton Stud at Newark.  However, Mrs Minnie Cradock, emphasised that ‘The Dean’ was her husband’s favourite, because of his wonderful temperament and soundness. Jim considered it a privilege to have the care and companionship of such a noble animal.

The Dean, a brown with four white legs, was foaled in 1928 and was named after his breeder, Stanley Dean, of Heaton, Bolton. His sire being Lincoln What’s Wanted 2nd (LWW2), and his Dam was Blurton Shy Maiden, his beautiful feather came from his Dam’s line which included the legendary Lockinge Forest King, the horse that endowed the Shire breed with its excessive feather in the early 1900s.  The Dean was remarkable in his own right, after winning his class for four consecutive years, 1934-37, in the breed’s heyday of the huge London Shire Horse Society shows. Yet from a six to a nine-year-old he was never considered for champion. Why? Because he was only 16.3hh. However there was considerable interest and support for this most practical division, often described as the ‘short-legged class.’  The Dean, despite his smaller stature, still weighed a ton (2240lb) and he was the breed’s ideal model depicted in a series of photographs until the standard was changed in 1949 with the Shire Horse Show champion, The Bomber.

As it was shown the Shires were going to the lighter finer feather and bone of the Clydesdale type.  Hence today we have two types of Shire, I personally lean towards the older style of Shire referred to as the traditional working Shire type.  The English Standard indicates a Stallion to be at least 17 hands whereas the American Standard will accept a minimum height of 16.2hands which leads us to the ‘short-legged class’ of old.  Notice the differance between the two types of Horses….Photograph of Father Abraham who is Westie’s Sire was provided by ”John Edwards, Toora Shires”.

I would like to acknowledge that this content and the photograph are derived from an article originally published in a magazine that has been around since the early 70’s which is dedicated to all draft horses,  it is called “Heavy Horse World” and worth subscribing to if you want to know anything about this type of horse.