Sir Walter Gilbey gave the Elsenham Cup for the best stallion, value 100 guineas, in 1884, which, however, was not won permanently till the late Earl of Ellesmere gained his second championship with Vulcan in 1891. Since these dates the Shire Horse Society has continued to give the Challenge Cups both for the best stallion and mare.
The sales hitherto mentioned have been those of landowners, but it must not be supposed that tenant farmers have been unable to get Shires enough to call a home sale. On February 5, 1890, Mr. A. H. Clark sold fifty-one Shires at Moulton Eaugate, the average being £127 5s., the striking feature of this sale being the number of grey (Thumper) mares.
In February, 1901, Mr. Clark and Mr. F. W. Griffin, another very successful farmer breeder in the Fens, held a joint sale at Postland, the former’s average being £100 6s. 9d., and the latter’s £123 9s. 8d., each selling twenty-five animals.
The last home sale held by a farmer was that of Mr. Matthew Hubbard at Eaton, Grantham, on November 1, 1912, when an average of £73 was obtained for fifty-seven lots.
Reference has already been made to Harold, Premier, and Prince William, as sires, but there have been others equally famous since the Shire Horse Society has been in existence. Among them may be mentioned Bar None, who won at the 1882 London Show for the late Mr. James Forshaw, stood for service at his celebrated Carlton Stud Farm for a dozen seasons, and is credited with having sired over a thousand foals. They were conspicuous for flat bone and silky feather, when round cannon bones and curly hair were much more common than they are to-day, therefore both males and females by Bar None were highly prized; £2000 was refused for at least one of his sons, while a two-year-old daughter made 800 guineas in 1891. For several years the two sires of Mr. A. C. Duncombe, at Calwich, Harold and Premier, sired many winners, and in those days the Ashbourne Foal Show was worth a journey to see.
In 1899 Sir P. Albert Muntz took first prize in London with a big-limbed yearling, Dunsmore Jameson, who turned out to be the sire of strapping yearlings, two- and three-year-olds, which carried all before them in the show ring for several years, and a three-year-old son made the highest price ever realized at any of the Dunsmore Sales, when the stud was dispersed in 1909. This was 1025 guineas given by Lord Middleton for Dunsmore Jameson II. For four years in succession, 1903 to 1906, Dunsmore Jameson sired the highest number of winners, not only in London, but at all the principal shows. His service fee was fifteen guineas to “approved mares only,” a high figure for a horse which had only won at the Shire Horse Show as a yearling. Among others he sired Dunsmore Raider, who in turn begot Dunsmore Chessie, Champion mare at the London Shows of 1912 and 1913. Jameson contained the blood of Lincolnshire Lad on both sides of his pedigree. By the 1907 show another sire had come to the front, and his success was phenomenal; this was Lockinge Forest King, bred by the late Lord Wantage in 1889, purchased by the late Mr. J. P. Cross, of Catthorpe Towers, Rugby, who won first prize, and reserve for the junior cup with him in London as a three-year-old, also first and champion at the (Carlisle) Royal Show the same year, 1902. It is worth while to study the breeding of Lockinge Forest King.
Sire—Lockinge Manners.
Grand sire—Prince Harold.
Great grand sire—Harold.
Great great grand sire—Lincolnshire Lad II. 1365.