Few High Prices from Exporters
“It is noteworthy that few, if any, of the high prices obtained for Shires at public sales have come from exporters or buyers from abroad, but from lovers of the heavy breed in England, who have been either forming or replenishing studs, therefore, ‘the almighty dollar’ has not been responsible for the figures above quoted. Still it is probable that with the opening up of the agricultural industry in Western Canada, South Africa, and elsewhere, Shire stallions will be needed to help the Colonial settlers to build up a breed of horses which will be useful for both tillage and haulage purposes.
“The adaptability of the Shire horse to climate and country is well known, and it is satisfactory for home breeders to hear that Mr. Martinez de Hoz has recently sold ten Shires, bred in Argentina, at an average of £223 2s. 6d., one, a three-year-old, making £525.
“Meanwhile it might be a good investment if a syndicate of British breeders placed a group of typical Shire horses in a few of the biggest fairs or shows in countries where weighty horses are wanted, and thus further the interests of the Shire abroad, and assist in developing the export trade.”
It may be added that during the summer of 1906, H.M. King Edward and Lord Rothschild sent a consignment of Shires to the United States of America for exhibition.
CHAPTER XV
Prominent Present-Day Studs
Seeing that Lord Rothschild has won the greatest number of challenge cups and holds the record for having made the highest price, his name is mentioned first among owners of famous studs.
He joined the Shire Horse Society in February, 1891, and at the show of 1892 made five entries for the London Show at which he purchased the second prize three-year-old stallion Carbonite (by Carbon by Lincolnshire Lad II.) from Mr. Edward Green for 1100 guineas. He is remembered by the writer as being a wide and weighty horse on short legs which carried long hair in attendance, and this type has been found at Tring Park ever since. In 1895 his lordship won first and third with two chestnut fillies—Vulcan’s Flower by the Champion Vulcan and Walkern Primrose by Hitchin Duke (by Bar None). The former won the Filly Cup and was subsequently sold to help to found the famous stud of Sir Walpole Greenwell at Marden Park, Surrey, the sum given being a very high one for those days.
The first championship was obtained with the mare Alston Rose in 1901, which won like honours for Mr. R. W. Hudson in 1902, after costing him 750 guineas at the second sale at Tring Park, January 15, 1902.
Solace, bred by King Edward, was the next champion mare from Lord Rothschild’s stud. Girton Charmer, winner of the Challenge Cup in 1905, was included in a select shipment of Shires sent to America (as models of the breed) by our late lamented King and Lord Rothschild in 1906. Princess Beryl, Belle Cole, Chiltern Maid, were mares to win highest honours for the stud, while a young mare which passed through Lord Rothschild’s hands, and realized a four-figure sum for him as a two-year-old from the Devonshire enthusiasts, Messrs. W. and H. Whitley, is Lorna Doone, the Champion mare of 1914.
Champion’s Goalkeeper, the Tring record-breaker, has been mentioned, so we can now refer to the successful stud of which he is the central figure, viz. that owned by Sir Walpole Greenwell at Marden Park, Woldingham, Surrey, who, as we have seen, bought a good filly from the Tring Stud in 1895, the year in which he became a member of the Shire Horse Society. At Lord Rothschild’s first sale in 1898, he purchased Windley Lily for 430 guineas, and Moorish Maiden, a three-year-old filly, for 350, since when he has bid only for the best. At the Tandridge dispersion sale he gave over a thousand pounds for the Lockinge Forest King mare, Fuchsia of Tandridge, and her foal. Sir Walpole was one of the first to profit by the Lockinge Forest King blood, his filly, Marden Peach, by that sire having been a winner at the Royal of 1908, while her daughter, Marden Constance, has had a brilliant show career, so has Dunsmore Chessie, purchased from Mr. T. Ewart as a yearling, twice London Champion mare.
No sale has been held at Marden, but consignments have been sold at Peterborough, so that the prefix is frequently met with.
The stud owner who is willing to give £4305 for a two-year-old colt deserves success.