Banging the drum for a great British breed

From warhorse to workhorse to show horse to riding horse, the mighty Shire has come full circle and its future looks bright

- Carolle Doyle

DYFED Shire Horse Farm sits between the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire and Newport Bay and is the home of a family who, with a certain amount of stubbornness and pride, breed Shire horses. The 'Great Horse' of knights, tournaments and battle, the draught horse that tilled the fields and fed the nation, the cart horse that carried anything and everything during the Industrial Revolution, is now a rare breed.

There are but 3,000 Shire horses in the entire country, of which Huw Murphy has bred one or two foals every year for four decades as a testament to his grandfather who began the Dyfed bloodline in 1981. It takes a degree of doggedness to breed horses whose work on the land has been replaced by tractors. However, the charismatic nature of Shires has given the family a living, for in 1992 the farm was opened to the public who come to hear the story of the Shire horse, get close to Murphy’s ‘gentle giants’ and take a ride in a carriage pulled by Alfie.

Here there are plaques and stories of the Dyfed Shires, and you begin to realise that these great horses are family just as much as Murphy himself. The latter’s pride grew a little in June 2023 when he watched two of his Shires, the drum horses Major Apollo and Major Juno, lead the King’s Birthday Parade – a role they will reprise this year, so long as they remain fit and healthy. Juno is the third and latest Dyfed Shire to become a drum horse, following in the hoofprints of Apollo (‘Ed’ to his friends) and the late, great Major Mercury, who began life in the fields of Pembrokeshire as ‘Celt’.