The Shire Horse

The Shire Horse is a full-length portrait of a black Shire standing square in a summer meadow, with a flowering hedge behind it and fields rolling away under a soft sky. It has a broad white blaze, a plain leather headcollar and four white legs, the long silky feather falling right over the hooves. The style is a classical oil in coal black, meadow green and cream, with buttercups and clover in the grass.

It is the picture for someone who loves the heavy horses: the Shire owner, the family that never misses a ploughing match, or the person who remembers the brewery drays. The whole horse is in the frame, legs and feather included, because that is what a Shire person looks at first. The tall shape suits a hallway or the wall beside a fireplace, and a big horse wants a big print: 50x70 cm on canvas or framed canvas does it justice.

It is a print in an oil-painting style, not a hand-painted original. The breed has its own Shire horse page, and if they have a Shire of their own, the custom horse portrait works from their photo.