Riding Atlas,...

I was riding today, and my husband snapped a photo I just felt like sharing. My shire horse and myself

Gorgeous photo! Thanks for sharing.

Is he considered a big horse??

Yeah he's a draft horse... he looks a lot like a Clydesdale... only bigger. Clydesdale s come from Shires. He has 3 more years of growing to do yet. He has all that trademark "feathering" (hair in the legs). People often mistake him for a Clydesdale. I like the breed so much that we bought his mother who was already bred to an internationally famous stallion. She is due to foal June 3rd.

I take him to parades, and people alias cheer and yell out how much they love the "Budweiser horse"...lol

Oh how beautiful !!!!! Such a awesome horse , OMG !!!
How is his ride ?? Are you going to keep the foal ?

I look forward to seeing pictures of the foal come June!

If it were up to me I'd keep the foal, but my husband will likely say no. With birds and horses, I can barely keep up riding the 5 horses we have now. We've had a lot of offers on the foal already. Draft are really smooth to ride. I use this one to chase cows... really! We bought his mother because we needed a matching team to compete in driving competitions. He out runs anything, and can go all day. He's my personal favorite

You can rest assured that around June 3rd I'll post photos of the foal! As far as them being less common, unfortunately that's true. Most people in America have never heard of one, and don't realize how much they really differ from a Clydesdale.

Forgive the ugly cart, but this was our first time driving him and we didn't want to destroy the expensive one if something went wrong.... and yes I know the harness is too big... we had gotten 7 new harnesses, and we hadn't quite got them to the right sizes for the horses at that point. This photo was taken on our south pasture about a month ago.

He's gorgeous. I've met a few draft horses; they were all remarkably calm, laid back horses.

Wow ! Gorgeous animal ! They are such regal looking animals !
The sheer size of them is amazing , but they are such mushes , at least the ones I knew , lol.

Because they're so easy going people tend to think they're stupid or slow, which couldn't be farther from the truth.

GORGEOUS!!!

We have horses too! have some pictures in my profile albums, you have to click on view all albums to get to them. We have a Belgian/paint gelding who's sooo totally awesome! My appy mare is 24 this year and our paint mare is 8...where has all this time gone???

Anyway, thanks for sharing this gorgeous photo!

Toni

Wow, beautiful. Would love to see more pictures of your horses

At one point there were so few Shires here in the U.S. that the American Shire Horse Association did something called the grade up program... you could breed a shire to a Morgan (believe it or not Morgans and shires decend from "the great black horse"... the oldest version of our present day friesian. You would the n have a shire sporthorse... then you kept breeding back to Shires, and when you reached 7/8 shire it was registered as a b grade shire... no stallions could be 7/8 the ASHA would only allow them to be registered as geldings. Same for 15/16 colts. After 15/16ths it is considered a Shire. Not nearly as bad as Friesians are though. In the 1970's there were only 3 documented Friesian stallions left worldwide. Their breed did something called an inbreeding coefficient... horse can only be related to the same horse so many times in varying generations. We have a Friesian as well. She was cheap for a friesian because while she is DNA registered and is a pure friesian, for some freak reason she was born with a white star and a small white sock. I've known friesian to have white stars (association allows a small one), but I have no idea how our mare wound up with her white markings. Her full brother is perfect, so who knows. We originally bought her and the shire mare to breed to a local guys gypsy vanners to produce drum horses, I have changed my mind and we will breed the friesian to a friesian, and most likely the shire to a shire.

The saddest part is that we buy our Shires from a guy who has about 80 of them and he has even helped set the breed standards. He imports a lot of his Shires and is considered the end all be all of the breed. Well, his wife had a stroke and he is in his late 70's, and no one is really sure how much longer he'll be in the business. He does have some beautiful horses though. If you feel like looking at more photos of shires his website is Jensonshires.com

Wow, he is stunning! You two look like quite the pair How many hands is he?

Not sure how many hands he is... the last time I stick measured him he was 17.1, but that was last fall. I bought him as a weanling because I'd had a horrible riding accident and had developed a serious fear of horses afterwards. I wanted something cold tempered and sure footed. I am sure it seems weird to buy a baby horse to get over a fear of riding, but I had ALWAYS wanted a shire (ever since I was a little kid), so I raised him and trained him, and I was the first and only person to ride him. I couldn't resist riding him because of what he is, so my love for his breed overruled my fear. Now I can atleast ride him and my mustang, so he did a good job of teaching me to trust my skills on a horse again. So that's why he is my favorite. I've fallen from him once, but it didn't seem to make me afraid, just got back on. It's weird because before my riding accident in Nov of 2007 I had been an OK rider and had been thrown before without making me afraid, but in 2007 when a deaf half blind horse stumbled badly I was thrown head first and I remember being quite surprised that I was still alive. I was never quite the same after the experience of being so sure I was going to die. I tried riding lessons, and I would get sick when I was told to get onto a horse (I would throw up if I had eaten anything), I wouldn't even get on a horse that was 22 and ridden by a 6company year old little girl. I didn't trust myself, and I certainly didn't trust horses. I tried different types of therapy, I was put on anti anxiety meds, in the end I bought Atlas and spent 3 years hanging out with him, and teaching him, and training him . I remember clearly the day I first had to get on him... my stomach was in knots (hadn't ridden in 3 years), but it wasn't fear it was excitement... I couldn't resist the urge to climb up and ride him.

Oh that's such a great story! I know the feeling - when I was just starting over fences I had a terrible fall and ended up having to go to therapy for my back injury. It took months for me to start jumping again, and even then I was extremely anxious and tense for quite awhile.

I used to ride a Shire/Thoroughbred cross, and he was lovely. I can only imagine how wonderful your big guy is to ride. Love the name too!