Workhorses of Britain's farms and battlefields face extinction within years

Whether it is carrying armour-clad knights into battle, hauling iron ploughs through fields of thick English mud, greasing the wheels of the Industrial Revolution or dragging artillery guns during both world wars, shire horses have played a pivotal role in Britain's history for 1,000 years.

But many of the country's finest draught breeds could be extinct within a generation following a dramatic drop in the number of people willing to breed them, experts predict.

The Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) announced yesterday that the number of draught horses in the UK is dwindling every year as breeders turn away from heavy horses to cheaper and less resource-hungry breeds.

Clydesdales, with ancestors stretching back to the 19th century when the Sixth Duke of Hamilton began cross-breeding his local horses with Dutch stallions, are now on the RBST's "vulnerable" list.

Shires – Britain's best-known working breed – are said to be "at risk".

The Suffolk punch, a muscled draught horse from East Anglia, is fast nearing extinction and is on the "critical" list with just 100 pedigree pairs left, making it officially rarer than the giant panda.

But unlike the panda, which conservationists and governments alike have spent millions on, little money is being put towards halting the decline of Britain's draught horses.

Tractors and mechanised farming have unsurprisingly taken their toll on the number of working horses needed for the kind of exertion they were once bred for. Heavy horses dominated British farming as a cheap and reliable source of power even during and after the Industrial Revolution. Only with the invention of the tractor were they eventually sidelined.

What particularly worries conservationists is how quickly the remaining populations of draught horses have tumbled during the past decade. In 1998 there were approximately 6,000 heavy horses left in Britain but now their numbers have almost halved to around 3,500.

The main problem is the lack of suitable breeding mare. The UK Shire Horse Society estimates that up to 300 female shire horses of breeding age are needed every year to replace old stock but only around 200 are available most years. Dawn Teverson, head of conservation at the RBST, said: "Heavy horses are so large that most normal people with normal levels of resources cannot look after them. They have to be really committed and it is a big responsibility."

She added: "A lot of the mares are used as show animals which means they aren't breeding and you also can't guarantee that a mare will produce a foal every year. All of these factors and many more have contributed to their current plight."

Harry Gotts, 80, one of Britain's last heavy horse breeders, fell in love with shires when he was evacuated to a farmhouse as a child during the Second World War and has been breeding them his entire adult life.

Mr Gotts has 10 Suffolk punch horses on his farm in Redruth, Cornwall – one in 20 of the country's entire Suffolk punch population.

"It is very sad," he said yesterday. "The numbers are not increasing. More Suffolk punch horses die now than are born. There are less and less people interested in them – people, particularly today, couldn't care less what happens to them. If we are not very careful, they will die out and that would be terrible. We have to accept that these beautiful animals could be extinct one day."

Shire horses: Equine tractors

Although normally associated with farming, shire horses began life in Britain as virtually unstoppable war machines. The Normans brought them over in the 11th century and for hundreds of years they remained one of the battlefield's most terrifyingly effective weapons. The horses can be more than 18 hands (180cm or 71 inches) tall and weigh up to 176 stone (1,120 kg or 2,460 lb). These hefty beasts cost hundreds of pounds each month in feed alone. Before tractors, shire horses were used to plough fields. During the 19th and early 20th century they helped deliver mail, milk, bread and collect rubbish. Even in the Second World War, the horses were used as a cheap method for transporting artillery, particularly in bad weather.