The Shire Horse is a breed available in the Horse Reality game that can be obtained from the Foundation.
| Shire Horse | |
|---|---|
|
|
| General Information | |
| Origin | United Kingdom |
| Horse Reality | |
| Colours | Black, Chestnut, Bay, Seal Brown, Flaxen, Sooty, Grey, Cream |
| Whites | White Markings, Hidden Sabino |
| Not yet in-game | W20 |
| Height | 165 - 195 cm |
| Registry | Shire Horse Society |
| Origin | Foundation |
| Status | In-game (2018) |
| Artists | |
| Lineart | S. Jullelin (2015) |
| Greyscale | Soihtu (2015) |
| Colours & patterns | T. van den Berg (2015), D. Grochowska (2020) |
¶ Conformation
The Shire Horse is the tallest breed in the world, with the average height for stallions standing around 178cm. It's not a surprise that as a result a lot of their perfect traits are characterised as long: heads, ears, necks, or croups. This breed is very muscular, their chests are wide, and their backs are short. The legs should be well under the body with fine, silky feathering.[1]
¶ Colour Genetics
Black is the most popular colour, but bay and brown also appear. Grey is also present in several lineages. Due to the strong selection for dark colours, the chestnut allele has become very rare but still exists within the breed.
In the US there is one known family carrying the cream allele. The dilution probably found its way into the breed before the studbook was completely closed and has managed to remain hidden as smoky black until very recently.
Shire horses have an abundant amount of white. The favourite pattern with breeders is four white legs up until just below the knees, though it is becoming far more common to see horses with white above the knees and large belly spots that sometimes even cover a large amount of the body. Such patterns are similar to those of the related Scottish Clydesdale horses, and though frowned upon, they are slowly growing in popularity.[1]
¶ Alleles
All alleles available for the breed can be found below highlighted in green. For better clarity, we bolded alleles that impact coat colours (eg. grey G vs non-grey g).
| Base Colours & Modifiers | ||
|---|---|---|
| Extension | Agouti | Grey |
| E, e | A, At, a | G, g |
| Dilutions | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cream-Pearl | Dun | Champagne | Silver | Mushroom |
| CR, n | nd2 | ch | z | n |
| White Patterns | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Frame | Appaloosa | PATN1 | MITF | SW2 | KIT |
| n | lp | patn1 | n | sw2 | n |
Please note that the table includes a hidden agouti allele (At). Besides testable genes, untestable ones are also present: sooty, flaxen, hidden sabino, and white markings (head markings, socks, etc.).
¶ Artwork Updates
The Shire Horse was added to the game in the beta version in 2015. Ever since the current Horse Reality version has been online, the breed received/will receive the following updates:
- New coat variations (colour & grey) on October 14th 2020[2]
- Will receive a new greyscale in the future.[3]
- The missing genes and alleles will be added to the game through new Foundation horses.[4][5]
¶ Breed in Real Life
The Shire is a large draft breed from the UK. At first, the breed was known as the Great Horse or the War Horse. Native British breeds are quite small and couldn't carry knights in heavy armour. That's when draft breeds from Europe were imported and the Shire Horse came to be. Eventually, heavy suits of armour disappeared but the Shire remained as a working animal instead of an ox. They were (and still are) great for working on farms or in forestry. The Industrial Revolution gave them even more opportunities to work but soon the technological development turned out to be a devastating blow for the breed. The Shire population went from well over a million to a few thousand by the 1960s. The breed could completely disappear if it weren't for loyal breeders. Nowadays, the Shire is again growing in popularity as a working, and riding horse.[1]
¶ References
- Shire Horse Society, Breed Standard & Points of the Horse: https://www.shire-horse.org.uk/breeding-shire-horses; Access: December 2022
- https://v2.horsereality.com/news/34/birthday-surprise-new-horse-colour-variations-small-community-update-v2-transfer-bugfixes
- https://v2.horsereality.com/news/127/community-update-massive-sales-quarter-horses-redo-art-survey-results-art-plans
- https://deloryan.notion.site/Horse-Breeds-Artwork-Genetics-6d0a84be35284b12806976bbb8cc886c
- https://v2.horsereality.com/news/52/community-update-v2-market-postponed-preparing-3rd-foundation-generation-about-breed-redos-new-art-intern-march-background
- Shire Horse Society, The Shire Horse: https://www.shire-horse.org.uk/the-shire-horse; Access: December 2022