SHIRE HORSES AT ISLINGTON 69 



also be credited to the breeders' experience. The nature 

 of the shire horse's work does not ordinarily disturb 

 this innate equanimity. They are never urged to 

 speed. On the other hand, they are constantly required 

 to make sudden exertions in pulling and hauling great 

 weights, exertions which require as much resolution on 

 the part of the horse, and urging by the * driver,' as 

 efforts of speed. Yet the shire horse works entirely by 

 the voice. He is never struck with the whip ; a hand 

 on the reins by his mouth, a friendly pull, and a word 

 or two, are enough to make him exert a muscular 

 power greater than that of any other domesticated 

 animal but the elephant. This docility has been 

 acquired without loss of courage or intelligence. Men 

 who have been employed for twenty years in super- 

 intending the shire horse at work say that he never 

 knows when he is beaten. The most trying work he 

 is employed in is that of carting earth from excavations, 

 or loads of stone and material to line cuttings and 

 reservoirs. To do so he draws his loads, not over 

 roads of macadam or stone, but over yielding earth or 

 clay. The load has usually to be started up an incline, 

 yet the horse obeys orders, and will renew the effort 

 again and again at the word of command. The camel, 

 which often refuses to move if overloaded, is perhaps 

 wiser in its generation. The intelligence of the shire 

 horse is not only not less, but greater, than that of 



