Sue Bailey Shires of Luscombe PO Box 26 Tamborine QLD 4270 Phone 07 55 464 106 or 0409 057 287 Email info@shiresofluscombe.com

The history of the Shires of Luscombe begins in the early 1990’s when we purchased our first Shire cross gelding, Toby. He was sired by Cedars Albert out of an Australian Draught Mare.  The search for purebred Shires begins much earlier than this though.

Since my early teens I had been interested in having Shire horses. Having grown up with the knowledge that my Grandfather had a team of "shires" on the dairy. Though not purebred they were still referred to as the shires. My father also used "shires" while he was delving bore drains in north western Queensland. I never considered any other heavy breed, it always had to be Shires.

Unfortunately the fact that there were no Shire Horses in Australia was a major stalling point. That was until I read with great interest in 1981 one stallion was imported from England. A little while later 13 mares followed along with another stallion. They were to become the foundation stock for purebred Shire Horses in Australia.

Unfortunately these mares were not available for sale nor were the initial group of foals from them. So it was a 12 year wait until we located the first two registered Shire mares to have as our foundation stock. We purchased the only two available for sale in Australia at the time. They were Cedars Annabella and Cedars Natasha.

Since purchasing Annabella and Natasha we have gone on to purchase an imported English Shire mare called Aldreth Lady Jane. She came to Australia as a six month old foal. We then purchased another English imported Shire mare called Middlecott Victoria. The first grey mare imported into Australia since the early 1900's. These four mares went on to become the foundation mares for The Shires of Luscombe. Our mare Victoria was imported in foal, she produced our stallion Luscombe Whats Wanted.

Many years have gone by and today we still remain the only Shire horse stud in Australia to have horses of Black, Brown, Bay and Grey; these are all of the acceptable colours for Shire Horses. Years of planning and research had gone into  finding the mares we wanted to establish our stud.

We produce quality foals with imported bloodlines. Our foals are well handled prior to leaving home. They are all registered with the English Shire Horse Society.

We are located between Brisbane and the Gold Coast in Queensland, in the picturesque Albert Valley.  This is an ideal location for growing strong healthy foals. The night temperatures in winter drop below -3 degrees which helps to produce horses with strong dense bones.

We do have visitors to the horses by appointment only. We are only too happy to help others on their journey towards owning or breeding Shire Horses.

The Shires of Luscombe is the home of Luscombe Whats Wanted the English Shire Horse Society registered Stallion and the only grey Shire stallion in Australia.

I hope you enjoy reading about our horses and the interesting history of the Shire Horse, enjoy the pictures on the Gallery page. Remember to visit regularly as the website is always updated. Enjoy your visit.