POWER OF SHIRE HORSES.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18266, 27 December 1924, Page 3

POWER OF SHIRE HORSES.

WEIGHT-PUTTING RECORDS

UNBEATEN.

The Shire Horse Society of Great Britain has received through Mr Wayne Dismore, Secretary of the Horse Association of America, details of the pulling contests for draught horses and mules at the 1924 lowa State Fair. These records are of special interest to Shire horse breeders and users in view of the official British tests at Islington in the spring and more recently at Wembley. it will be recalled that the test m conjunction with the Shire Show at Islington was carried through under normal conditions of work, with two Liverpool dock horsea yoked to a lorry. In the street test, and under most unfavourable climatic conditions, these horses, shod in Liverpool style (hoels and toe-pieoes), moved with comparative ease a load of 18i tons on wheels, and, after starting, walked away with it quite easily. During the Civio Week at Wembley the tests performed by the Liverpool Corporation horses were controlled by a dynamometer, attaobed to an immovable object. The results were as follow: (1) One horse shod in Liverpool style pulled a starting load of 29 tons j and the maximum pull by a horse in flat sboes "was equal to 12 tons. A team of two horses shod in Liverpool style easily pulled the maximum register of the dynamometer, and thfc pull exerted was considered equal to a- starting load of SO tons. The American tests were carried out by means of a dynamometer affixed to a vehicle, and the pulls were made over a distance of 27} feet. According to calculations verified mathematically from the details supplied, the greatest pull obtained by the American team of horses was a tractive pull of 30001b, which they 6tate would be equal to the starting of a load of 38,9601b, or 17 tons 7owt, and 6-7cwt on granite setts. From the report on the Canadian Regina Show in the "Nor' West Farmer," August 20th, the 6etting-up of a new world's "record" in horse pulling is claimed. The "record" pull was 31001b or equal to the starting of a load of 16.4 tons by a team of two horses on asphalt pavement. Judging from the above respective records the honour still remains, states the Shire Horse Society, with our British horses, represented by the Shirebred Liverpool Dock and Corporation horses.