Our Animals
Dogs Welcome
Dogs welcome on leads
2022 Award
Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice
Disabled Access
Fun for the whole family
Our Animals
Our Residents
We not only have the rare breed Clydesdale horses, but we also have rare breed Ducks, Geese and Pigs. We made the decision to become a Rare Breed working farm so visitors can embrace what would have been around in the day of the working horse.
All our animals are very special to us, and our breeding programmes continue to allow us to contribute to their preservation. From March onwards we always have some youngsters around that people can view and enjoy.
The Horses
The Centre predominantly concentrates on the Clydesdale Heavy Horse, which sadly now is listed on the Rare Breeds Watch List. The Clydesdale was the Scottish heavy working horse and came down as far as North Yorkshire. Hay Farm had 17 Clydesdale horses working from it, and it was in the 1950s that the last working horse left. Opening the Centre in 2013 saw them return and now we have a full breeding programme with a resident stallion, who is quite a character and certainly is a firm favourite with our visitors. Besides breeding Clydesdales, we also rescue and adopt Heavy Horses, providing the facilities and knowledge for their care.
The Porker’s
The pig was an essential part of a farm, as it was one of the main sources of food for the farming family. In the era of the working horse, there was a wide variety of pigs around the country; however, after World War II, food was in high demand, and the quick-finishing commercial pig was introduced to keep up with demands.
In order to help preserve another one of the rare breed varieties, the British Lop Ear Pig, of which there are only around 200 left, we included them in the Centre.
Visitors can view our boar Dominic along with Fleur and Lettie, our sows, all of whom are very big characters indeed.
Pigs are naturally very clean animals; however, being light-skinned can suffer from sunburn and tend to be covered in mud, giving the impression of being dirty animals.
Visitors will be able to see the ladies with their piglets at certain times of the year, which never ceases to entertain. Their offspring are being bred for the breeding market.
The Honker’s
The Sebastopol Geese – George and Mildred arrived with us late last year. These are Rare Breeds, but what took our eye were the beautiful long flowing feathers.
The Sebastopol is also known as the Pantomime goose and first came to Britain around 1860. They cannot fly and the two characters are very friendly, however, they do tend to like to exercise their vocals
The Quacker’s
We have always had rare breed Ducks which are very popular with visitors, for being such characters. Within the yard, you will always find the Indian Runner Ducks sunning themselves. These ducks are the most un-duck like duck, they don’t like swimming and only flap their wings to help them run faster. What they do have is the most amazing colours when the sun hits them and are good egg producers and children love them.
