A hobby horse with serious pedigree

The main casualty of the farm machinery revolution which overtook agriculture in the mid-20th century was the Shire horse.

Until that time the gentle giant of the fields was a familiar sight pulling the plough in the East Riding.

A marginal career as a delivery horse for ale to pubs has now all but gone except for breweries who maintain them as a token heritage presence.

As a result, there are fewer than 2,000 Shire horses worldwide and it is now classed as a rare breed.

But one farming family near the Holderness coast is keeping the tradition of breeding them alive.

Father and son Francis and Mark Richardson were celebrating their latest arrival last week. It’s a newly-born colt foal to their current national champion mare called Bewholme Moonlight Sensation and its arrival has brought international interest.

“If we’ve a foal to sell we get people ringing up from all over the world,” says Francis. “We have sold foals as far as Western Australia. Everyone is interested, especially if it has come through good breeding lines.

“We still have another champion mare, Mawstone Winnie, who is revered throughout the world.

She’s 14 years-old now, but she is still winning championships and the first thing many of our fellow Shire horse colleagues will ask about any foal is usually, ‘Is it out of Winnie?’”

Their question is now likely to be widened to include Bewholme Moonlight Sensation. This year at the National Shire Show at Peterborough she was crowned champion mare.

It is the first time in 40 years of competing at Peterborough that this quiet East Riding family have received the top honour, although Winnie has previously carried off the major award at the Horse of the Year Show back in 2007.

Francis has farmed at Bewholme Hall, near Hornsea, all his life and has bred Shire horses for much of that time with his father Frank, who passed away in December last year.

“We first went into pedigree Shires in 1970, purchasing a couple from a breeder in Lincolnshire.

“We got into showing in a big way, sometimes attending three shows a week with eight horses. At our peak we had 20 Shires on the farm and one year we had 10 foals.

“There was a time when a stallion would be transported around the UK for breeding. The stallion man would take it around between the end of March until July.

“He also had a high opinion of his own breeding prowess and used to say he was only three behind the stallion. I don’t know how true that was.”

Mark took over the showing and breeding reins from his father Francis just over a decade ago and has a more focused approach than preceding generations.

“We’ve gone from taking eight or even nine horses to each show to just three or four,” he says.

“I can’t see the point in taking an animal that doesn’t stand a chance of winning. If it’s going to win, it will win. If not then we park it up and take something else.”

Mark, who moved to Riston Whins at Long Riston last November, also works at Bishop Burton College.

He made sure Bewholme Moonlight Sensation was at her best at Peterborough.

“She was 10 months in-foal when she won. I don’t know whether it was a good trick or bad one, but I took the males down in a wagon for the first day of showing, drove them back on the Saturday night, then got up Sunday morning at four o’clock to drive her down safely and keep her fresh.

“With her being in-foal I was extra-careful. It was a fantastic moment when she won. The show is not just a national event but international. There were horses from Sweden, Germany and Holland competing. Over 300 horses were exhibited and over 140 of them were mares.”

The Richardsons will be showing throughout Yorkshire this year and locking horns with their regular rivals such as Paul Bedford of Deighton, near Escrick. “Shire horses are a hobby that offer a bit of income. You can’t make anything from it.

“We sold Bewholme Aurora, a daughter of Mawstone Winnie, to Kerry Tanner in Wales. She went on to win the Royal Welsh three times and was junior and reserve champion at Peterborough in 2008.

“But largely we have a prize money battle between ourselves and the other breeders. It’s all good fun. The Bedford boys take some beating as they produce real quality stock too.

“In the Shire world if you can win at the Great Yorkshire you are held in high esteem and we won there two years ago with Bewholme Moonlight Sensation.”

As the Bewholme Shires dynasty has flourished, so has the the Richardson family. “Up until my grandfather died we flagged ourselves as having four generations involved with the Shires. My son Harry (12) has never been beaten yet in a young handlers competition.

“Bewholme Moonlight Sensation is the result of six generations of Shires and her success in March was down to all four generations of us having had an input into her. I started preparing her in September last year.”

The heavy mob down on the farm

Shire horses were used as working animals at Bewholme until 1960.

Today’s farming operation runs to 260 acres across both Bewholme and Riston Whins and includes grazing for the horses, environmental stewardship and 150 acres of cereals. They also have a commercial flock of 200 ewes.

The Richardsons’ latest colt foal is as yet unnamed. Francis has mentioned Olympus as a possibile choice.

Perhaps you have your own ideas for a name?: Send suggestions to [email protected] or Country Week, Wellington Street, Leeds, LS1 1RF.