Wednesday, June 5, 2019

10ft Poe World's tallest horse record


He's ten feet tall with his head upright, weighs 3,000lb, and stands at 20.2 hands at the shoulder.

So is Poe the Clydesdale the world's tallest horse?

His diminutive owner Shereen Thompson thinks so - and said she wants to 'get the Guinness guys here as soon as possible'.

Giddy up... and up and up: Poe the Clydesdale towers over his owner Shereen Thompson in Tupperville, Canada


Inching above his rivals: Poe, shown here with another horse on the Canadian farm, stands at 20.2 hands

Poe stands 6ft 8.75in (80.8in) from hoof to shoulder. That is taller than the current tallest horse Remington, who was declared the official Guinness World Record holder only last week at 80in in Princeton, Texas.

Living on Ms Thompson's working farm in Tupperville, Ontario, ten-year-old Poe stands ready to inch above his rivals.

'We want to get the Guinness guys here as soon as possible,' said Ms Thompson - who is dwarfed by her gentle giant, who towers over her 5ft 3in,120lb frame.

Neigh high: Ms Thompson, who is just 5ft 3in, is dwarfed by the gentle giant

'We have known for a while that he could be the tallest horse in the world, we just need to get the official documents that the people in London want to see.

'Poe is 20.2 hands and I know that Remington is 80 inches tall, so that means that Poe has him beat.'

Consuming two bales of hay, 10lb of grain and 75 gallons of water each day, Poe needs all the energy he can to support his enormous frame.

The elephant-sized equine belongs to the Clydesdale breed of working farm horse. He was rescued by Ms Thompson from a neighbouring farm when she learned the owner there was having problems with him.

Feeding machine: Poe, shown here taking a gallop through the fields, eats two bales of hay a day to support his massive frame

It was not a case of neglect, just ignorance of how much is needed to feed a horse of this size,' Ms Thompson explain. 'So we brought him in and began to feed him up.'

That was in February of 2008. A horse like Poe needs about 18 months to rebuild his strength, Ms Thompson said.

'Poe used to work in nearby London, Canada, pulling the crates of Budweiser, rather like the horses of Youngs Brewery used to in London, England,' she explained.

'We built him up over time and then began to realise his sheer size as he bulked out.'

Named after the famous author Edgar Allen Poe, this giant horse spends the majority of his time now running the fields of Ms Thompson's farm.

'We take him to fairs across Lambton County,' she said. 'He is extremely popular, but his size always means people keep a cautious distance from him - although they shoudn't, as he is a real puppy.

'But he does sometime forget his strength and drags me along if he wants to play or go chasing something that has caught his attention.'

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