Mystery draft horses

When we first moved to our little horse farm, we were surrounded by horses (cows and sheep, too). It's one thing we loved about the place from the beginning: that all around us were other small farms. We boarded a few horses along with my own, and life was good. With all the nearby trails, we often saw horses being ridden up and down the road, and I did the same. My Thoroughbred gelding loved trail riding, and I didn't have an outdoor ring at the time, so trail riding was pretty much all I did.

But we were both surprised one day when working out in the front pasture, and a young Clydesdale trotted past on the road, pulling a training cart. Dave looked at the horse, and said "If I ever got my own horse, I'd like to have a draft horse." We saw the horse and driver a lot that summer; we later found out that he used the outdoor ring at the horse boarding farm just up the road.

We never did get that draft horse (although it would have been a lot of fun). But we always looked for them on our backroads drives, and never missed the draft horse shows at the state fair each year. Clydesdale, Percheron, Shire, Belgian… I loved them all.

Our best friends live in Kittitas county, home to Ellensburg and Central Washington University. On my last visit, I was surprised to see a big herd of black draft horses just down the hill from their place. Linda & I stopped to check them out, and I left the Pilot in the middle of the road and took a few quick pictures. Nothing photographic about the shots; I'll have to come back another day and spend some time doing a better photo shoot. This is a beautiful herd, mares and geldings, and one foal... already the size of a Quarter horse.

We weren't entirely sure what breed they were. They're pure black with lots of white markings, the feathers you usually see on Clydesdale legs, and gorgeous Roman noses. They were quite striking, standing in a brilliant green pasture, with golden hills behind. Linda guessed Percheron, but since they're born black and turn grey as they age, that wasn't right. And I knew that although Clydesdales have white markings and feathers, they are always bay.

So I did some research later, and these beautiful horses are Shires. Black is the most common color for this breed, their feathers come from the Clydesdale in their foundation bloodlines, and they have extravagent white markings. But the clincher in the identification was the Roman nose... that is all Shire and not shared among the other breeds.

If you're interested in learning more, here's a link to the breed association website: www.shirehorse.org/information/breedstandard