TEA Party Horses

If you attended our Hop Harvest TEA Party this year, you would've seen the 2 beautiful Shire horses doing the dray rides with their owner John. You may have even seen them have a little taste of our Tongham TEA... But did you know, these horses, Prince and George, also eat our spent grain? 

In the months of November to April, John buys some of our spent grain left over from the brewing process to feed his Shire horses with. The spent grain is used to help fatten them up over the winter months to help keep them warm. Unlike for the Jersey Cows at Farmer Mike's farm, the spent grain offers no nutrition for Prince and George, and is therefore eaten alongside their regular feed to keep them happy and healthy.

Both Prince and George are also keen beer lovers too! At first, they weren't keen and turned their noses up, however, their love of barley and wheat soon got them trying it... (don't worry, it's safe for them to drink!). They first started tasting it when they would sniff at Julie's (John's partner on the farm) drink and took a cheeky taste. Now they've even learnt how to drink from a cup!

We are glad to be able to invite John and his horses to the TEA Party every year, including his Suffolk horses from the 2021 party, as these are 2 rare and endangered breeds, with less than 3000 Shire horses left and under 350 pure-bred Suffolk horses are left in the UK. John has been looking after horses for over 25 years, owning Prince and George for 10 years.

These beautiful Shires do plenty of events including village fetes, pub openings, funerals, and even pulling Santa along at Christmas! They don't do any work on the farm as John and Julie have their trusty tractor to do the hard work, but they are ridden and live happy lives on the farm.