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JUDGING DRAFT HORSES 



dale breed is comparable in many respects to the Shire, 

 although it possesses much better quality and action but less 

 scale than the latter. 



Shire. The Shire horse originated in England. It is in 

 many respects a complement to the Clydesdale, which is 

 a product of Scotland. The Shire is one of the heaviest 

 draft breeds, from this standpoint giving them a peculiar 

 draft horse characteristic. The colors of the Shire are black, 



FIG. 37. Shire stallion. 



bay, brown, chestnut, roan, and gray. The breed possesses 

 a very wide variation in respect to color. It is characterized 

 by white points similar to those in the Clydesdale. While 

 the Shire possesses unusual substance, the breed is lacking 

 in quality, especially as compared with the Clydesdale. The 

 hair and the bone have a rather coarse, meaty tendency, 

 while the hoof is often open and shelly in texture. The 

 contour of the Shire is fair. The head is rather large and 

 inclined to be plain. The same condition is exhibited 



