DYFED Shire Horse Farm sits between the Preseli Hills of Pembrokeshire and Newport Bay and is the home of a family who, with a certain amount of stubbornness and pride, breed Shire horses. The ‘Great Horse’ of knights, tournaments and battle, the draught horse that tilled the fields and fed the nation, the cart horse that carried anything and everything during the Industrial Revolution, is now a rare breed.

There are but 3,000 Shire horses in the entire country, of which Huw Murphy has bred one or two foals every year for four decades as a testament to his grandfather who began the Dyfed bloodline in 1981. It takes a degree of doggedness to breed horses whose work on the land has been replaced by tractors. However, the charismatic nature of Shires has given the family a living, for in 1992 the farm was opened to the public who come to hear the story of the Shire horse, get close to Murphy’s ‘gentle giants’ and take a ride in a carriage pulled by Alfie.

Here there are plaques