Heavy Horse Team Trade Turnout Class


Heavy horses are always a wonderful sight at the Royal Bath & West Show – this year spectators were captivated by the introduction of a new class for teams of up to six. David Mouland from Burgate in Hampshire won the class with a team of six Canadian Belgian Drafts.

There may have only been four turnouts in the arena on the Thursday at The Royal Bath & West Show but they were still a spectacular sight. Spectators were given a lesson in the different breeds and their history.

The class took place at 2.20pm with the commentator explaining that class winner David Mouland and his team started their preparation on the show ground for the class at 8.30am that morning.

From The Royal Bath & West Show:

David’s links with the Bath & West Show go back a long way – his father used to exhibit horses there as a boy. And David has also been competing and demonstrating heavy horses at the Show for many years.

“As a young lad I did a lot of work with heavy horses on my father’s farm – I remember driving them when I was six or seven years old,” he says. Although the farm was mechanised, his father competed Shires and Clydesdales in ploughing competitions, so was one of the last real carters. “We would use a pony to lift the mangles as it was lighter, and then a horse to pull the cart back in,” reminisces David. “We’d take the silage out to the cows – the horse would walk up and down the field and we’d fork it out of the cart; we brought in the straw, and ploughed in the winter.”