Digger, a 6 ft 6 in (1.98 m) tall Clydesdale, is one big horse. - the biggest in Britain, in fact (and he's still growing!):
Eileen Gillen, farm manager, said: "He is the largest horse we have ever had. He is the equivalent of a growing teenage boy --never out of the fridge. Heaven knows what size he is going to end up."
With his head up Digger measures close to 9ft. Horses are traditionally measured in four-inch "hands" from the ground to the withers, which is the highest point of the spine before it becomes the animal's neck.
Digger is now neck and neck with Cracker, a shire horse in Lincolnshire measured at 19 hands and two inches in 2005.
And does anyone have an idea how to get rid of my partner's ridiculous idea that horses will eat him? (no, all rational arguments don't work)...
And Aeris, why would you want to rid your partner of such a charmingly amusing phobia? Cultivate it for fun and entertainment! Dress him up like a bag of oats and send him out amongst the horsies ...
Aeris, we have warmbloods as a generic breed, hotbloods like Arabians and Thoroughbreds, drafts (probably your cold bloods), and ponies (shorter breeds). What are Iberians?
when it comes to comments though, Vako's "joke" too obvious to still be funny... but props to him for having the balls to actually say it :D
(and Ali S., thank you, I'm glad there were other folks who immediately lept to the LOTR connection when reading this post, too ...)
My grandmother was always quite proud of her own maternal grandfather, who had driven a six-hitch of Clydesdales as a brewery teamster in Boston for thirty year at the end of the 19th century. Any man who could handle six of those, day in and day out, through clattering city streets in all kinds of weather, must have both stamina and ferocious will.