Luscombe Lord Tobias, or Toby, was my first purebred heavy horse, and he has been a wonderful example of everything that typifies the willing, quiet draft. He was bred by Sue and Chris Bailey, of 'Shires Of Luscombe' . His dam, a bay, was Aldreth Lady Jane, and his sire Luscombe What's Wanted, or Ted.

Ted is the only grey shire stallion in Australia and has produced amongst his impresssive progeny, Luscombe Lord Nodram, a grey shire gelding, who stands at 20.1 hands at four years of age. At five he will be measured by the Guiness book of Records and very possibly become the tallest living horse in the world.

Toby, on the other hand, is fully matured, and stands just a shade under 18 hands, which is certainly big enough for me! He has been trained for draft work, as well as ridden, and shortly he will also be trained to cart and dray work.

Given his size, Toby has incredible paces and can load up his hindquarters and turn as well as any quarter horse. He is also very forward moving under saddle, and demonstrates a beautiful collected canter.

Due to his lack of interaction with other horses, as with any stallion, it remains a problem he could succumb to boredom. In an effort to avoid this I am constantly trying to invent new and intriguing training games for him, and expose him to varying sets of circumstances and situations.

To this end, he has done a small amount of jumping, done some mustering work with my cattle and even had tarps tied to his tail! To his credit Toby applies himself with due diligence to every new experience, even though there are times he must see me coming, carrying strange new things,  and just roll his eyes and think 'what weird things does this strange human want me to do now?'