Shire

History
In the mid-11th century, William the Conqueror brought large draft horses, called the Great Horse at the time, with him from France to the United Kingdom. During the 1600s, Dutch people came to England to help drain the marsh land. They brought with them Friesians and Flemish horses to help with their work, leaving them behind when the work was done. These horses were later crossed with descendents of the Great Horse, creating what was called the English Black.

Shire credit

 These large, strong horses were initially used as war horses in the Middle Ages, when knights wore heavy armor to battle. When heavy armor was no longer used by soldiers, people began using the horse to pull carts, plough fields, and work in forests throughout the counties of Lincolnshire, Staffordshire, Leicestershire, and Derbyshire, naming the breed Shire in honor of that fact. In London, people used the strong, calm Shire to pull cargo and deliver beer from the breweries to local pubs.

  During the early 1900s, the Shire became popular in the United States, and several thousand were imported. However, after World War II, when the use of horses for work decreased, the number of Shires quickly declined, dropping down to only a scant few thousand in the 1950s. People interested in the breed crossbred it with Clydesdales to save it from extinction, causing the breed to change a bit. Today, the breed is becoming increasingly more popular.

Breed Description and Uses
 Shires, standing up to 19 hands high and weighing about a ton, are one of the world's largest draft breeds. They have big barrels and long legs with thick feathering and are usually found in black, brown, gray, and bay. Despite their large size, they are gentle and kind. Even today, they are often used for pulling carts and working on small farms. A brewery in London still uses them for their traditional use of transporting beer to pubs, as they have for several hundred years.

Dales Pony

History
 The Dales Pony comes from the eastern slope of England's Pennines Range, originating from the ancient Pennine Pony that once lived there and the now extinct Scottish Galloway. When the Romans invaded the area between 43 and 410 AD, they discovered the the small ponies were strong, so they began using the ponies to carry heavy loads of lead from various to mines to mills. Often, the ponies would travel as much as 200 hundred miles a week without tiring.

 Later, Norfolk Trotter, Yorkshire Roadster, and Friesian blood was added to the mix, creating a pony with even more speed and substance, as well as flashy knee action from the trotter. In the eighteenth century, the agile pony with lots of stamina became favored by hunters. To improve the gait of the pony, a Welsh Cob stallion by the name Comet was breed to the dales in the 1850s. Not long after that, with the improvement of roads, the Dales became a stage coach horses.

 In 1916, the breed stud book was opened and the Dales Pony Improvement Society was formed. It was in the early part of this century, however, that the breed was hit pretty bad. They were used during the first World War and again in World War II. World War II almost brought the end of the breed. Hundreds of mares were taken by the army to by used for breeding cavalry mounts, many never to return to their homeland again. In 1964, The Dales Pony Improvement Society, who then changed their name to the Dales Pony Society, began to make efforts to save the breed. They searched for Dales Ponies, registering them and breeding them. Over the next seven years, the number of ponies steadily increased. Today, only about 300 exist in North America.

Dales Ponies and strong and sturdy, commonly coming in black.
source

Breed Description and Uses
 Dales Ponies, standing 14 hands high on average, are sturdy and muscular. They have strong, solid hooves, often tinted blue; clean legs with some feathering on them; sloping shoulders; arched necks; a straight profile; and a small muzzle. They are most commonly black, but bay, gray, and roan sometimes occurs.

 The Dales' endurance makes it excellent in almost every equestrian sport, particularly driving and English sports.

Morgan

 In 1789, a logging horse named Figure was born in West Springfield, Massachusetts. No one knew who his parents were, although some suspect the sire to be True Briton, a Thoroughbred, and believe that Friesians, Welsh Cobs, Norfolk Trotters, or even Canadian Horses to be somewhere in his lineage. Then again, these are just speculations. No one really knows for certain. 

 As a yearling, Figure was sold to Justin Morgan, a schoolteacher from Vermont, who lent the young horse to neighboring farmers to be used as a plow horse and a logging horse. It turns out that the small, 14 hands high colt was also good at racing. He would beat the fastest Thoroughbreds in match races, win trotting races, and could even out-pull heavy draft horses in log-pulling races, always winning, no matter how much extra weight was put on.

Morgans are usually found in bay,
black, and dark chestnut. They
can be used in many disciplines,
including western pleasure, like the one
above.

 It wasn't long before villagers asked for Figures stud services, breeding him mainly to Thoroughbred and Norfolk Trotter mares, although he successfully made his mark upon generations of horses, which became to be known as "Morgan's horse." Later, the name was shortened to "Morgan," which is used to this day. 

 The Morgan has large, intelligent eyes; a slightly dished profile; a crested neck, which flows smoothly into high withers; a short back, sturdy legs, powerful haunches, and stands between 14.1 and 15.2 hands high. Also, the breed is divided into two different types: the powerful, compact Morgan, which closely resembles the breed's base stallion, Figure, and the elegant, more refined type, developed more recently than he other type. Despite their physical differences, the two have three traits in common: liveliness, endurance, and a good-natured temperament. 

 Just like the Thoroughbred, the Morgan excels in many disciplines, including dressage, driving, endurance racing, eventing, show jumping, and just about any other discipline, English or Western. The fact that it is an all-round horse most likely goes back to the early development of the breed, when a farmer needed to have it ready to do harness work or another man had to use it for different purposes. 

The Shire and Clydesdale: a Comparison

Imagine that you see two horses--a Shire and a Clydesdale. At first, if you know little about horses, you may say that they are the same horse. Though they are certainly quite similar physically, their historically backward has several differences.

Historical Background

Clydesdale(credit)

  First, the Clydesdale comes from Scotland, not England. The breed was first introduced in the early 19th century after many years of selectively breeding local mares to Flemish stallions. By the late 19th century, Clydesdales had become extremely popular.  Both Scotland and North America had there own breeding association for the horse. After World War I, the number of Clydesdales dramatically declined due to the fact that most farmers had stopped using horse drawn plows. It wasn't until 1975 that they were considered on the brink of extinction and people began to breed them in order to save the species. Thirty years late the number of Clydesdale was greatly increased, and today there is estimated to be about 5,000 worldwide.


 Shires, which originate from England, have a different story. They are believed to be descendants of the Old English Black Horse, which was used in the 17th century. Later on, Friesians, as well as Dutch horses, were bred with the English horse and by the mid-17th century, the Shire was first mentioned. It wasn't until the late 1800s that the breed was officially formed. In the early 1900s, the Shire became popular in the U.S. Then, during World War II, draft horses began to disappear because of purchase of livestock feed was strict. Finally, in the '70s, the horse became popular once more in both America and England.

Shire(credit)

Appearance

  In appearance, the horses are almost the same,  which is probably because of Clydesdale influence in the Shire. Both are big-boned and average  17 hands or more(a hand is four inches). Also, they  commonly have white markings on the legs and face with "feathers" around the ankles.

Uses Today

Today, both horses are commonly used for similar activities. Clydesdales often make great riding and sport horses and are often seen pulling carts or even doing agricultural work.  Shires, too, are used in sports such as cross country and obstacle driving, or just for everyday riding. 

Friesian

The Friesian can have it's ancestors traced back to the Equus Robustus, a prehistoric horse horse that lived in the Netherlands at the ice age period. During the 16th and 17th century, Andalusians were bred with descendants of this early horse. This resulted Friesian breed. It was bred in Friesland, which is a province in the Netherlands. It was first developed as a work horse. In the Middle ages, Friesians travelled to European countries and knights used them as war horses. Friesians have been bred pure for centuries. The Friesian government has made many laws for good breeding of Friesian horses. By reading past records of Friesian breeding, we have learned that in days of old the Friesian horses were famous, even praised as early as the 16 century! On one occasion, during the 20th century, the Friesian almost became extinct. But rationing of fuel in World War II made people turn to Friesians as means of transportation. It is very, very, rare but occasionally a chestnut friesian is born.

The chestnut friesian comes from:

http://friesian-crazy.tripod.com/health.html

The black friesian is compliments of:

http://heavyequuscaballus.tumblr.com/post/5663634238/rearing-friesian