From Tuesday 28 February to Friday 3 March, Operation Centaur’s Shire horses will be in residence working in our Grade-I listed woodland gardens.

To ensure healthy woodland, regular maintenance is essential. This includes felling small trees and removing scrub and is labour-intensive for humans. Shire horses make light work of this kind of heavy gardening task and are particularly well-suited because they tread lightly in sensitive woodland areas. Shire horses can also access to hard-to-reach places and avoids the use of heavy machinery.

Based at Hampton Court Palace and Royal Richmond Park, Operation Centaur operates the last working herd of Shire horses in London. The organisation demonstrates that there is an essential role for working horses in conservation, and their work in wildflower meadows across Central and Southwest London has provided evidence that using Shire horses to manage these paces results in more flowers and greater variety – with some flowers reappearing that had not been seen for decades.

We have recently employed Operation Centaur’s horses to cut meadows and large areas of grassland. This large-scale mowing work would have taken the gardening team a week but was completed in one and a half days by two Shire horses. See the previous work here.

Tom Nixon, Head of Heavy Horses at Operation Centaur, said:

Beautiful spaces such as the woodland at Chiswick House & Gardens needs careful and empathic management. Not only are our Shires the perfect solution to the maintenance needs, they also provide an opportunity to show the public that these magnificent horses are still relevant.

Rosie Fyles, our Head of Gardens, added:

Working with Operation Centaur on wooded areas is an innovation for Chiswick House & Gardens Trust. It’s a treat to see these magnificent beasts at work and we welcome the biodiversity benefits they bring into these historic areas of the Gardens.

According to The Rare Breed Society, Shire horses are an ‘at risk’ breed, even rarer than the Giant Panda. Providing opportunities for them to work is the cornerstone of their preservation.

If you would like to come and see the Operation Centaur Shire horses in action, they will be working in our gardens from Monday 28 February to Friday 3 March 2023, 10am–3pm.

*Please note the dates and timings of this activity are subject to change at short notice. We advise you check before travelling.*