Wade Farms is situated on 80 acres in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Bedford County, Virginia, which is the home of the beautiful National D-Day Memorial, the Peaks of Otter, and Smith Mountain Lake.

The farm, purchased in 1972 by the Wade's, was originally a working dairy farm, but the Wade’s used it as part of their Beef Cattle operation. They operated as a beef cattle farm until 1996 when all cattle and equipment was sold due to family illness and no longer was able to take care of the cattle operation.



For the next 10 years, the farm was rented on and off to various farmers that used the pasture for grazing their cattle. Then in 2006, after the passing of his Father, we decided that it was time for us to move down to be close to his Mother, and to make this land an operational farm again. We moved our few horses down, and for the next year, remodeled the big hay barn and built fences.

In 2007, we purchased our first Shire Draft Horses, a 4-month old Stallion, and a Shire mare. The next year, two more mares were added with one being bred, and in 2009 we had our first foal, and in 2010 we had our first batch of home-bred babies. We have continued to grow our Shire herd since, sometimes reaching over 20 Shires.

For the next 5 years we would make hay on about 45 acres and use the rest for pasture. Several months before our mares were due to foal, we would move them to our house where we could keep a close eye on them.

Then in March, 2010, we began building our house, a horse barn and another shop. Two years later we were able to make our official move, and combine all horses into one location. Today, we are currently using approximately 40 acres for pastures for our Shire draft horses and cutting approximately 35 acres for our hay. We have also added some laying hens, have raised and processed several batches of meat chickens, and some Idaho pasture pigs.

We strive to breed the best quality, not quanity Shires, focusing on disposition and conformation. Our goal also is to promote and educate others about the Shire and the versatility of this magnificent breed. We take time to listen and try to match the right Shire with the right potential buyer. Check out our 5-Star rating on Facebook.

Our foals are imprinted from birth and handled daily. We use natural horsemanship training techniques to teach our Shires to drive single, double and ride. Our goal is to make all of them traffic and parade safe by exposing them to as many sights and sounds as possible. Our Shires are happy, enjoy working and are a pleasure to be around.

After having a phase of several sets of twins, we decided to learn reproduction, and attended Colorado State University’s week-long Reproduction Class in 2020. Then in 2022 we had another Reproduction Class held at our farm, where David Riddle with The Breeder’s Assistant taught an in-depth Stallion Collecting and Freezing Semen Class, and by 2023, we had our lab up and running. We now have several Shire Stallion’s semen frozen and in tanks. We will continue collecting and freezing, and breeding outside mares to help preserve this awesome draft horse. We have also bred to several light horses, giving those owners some very nice warmblood horses.

If you are interested in breeding your mare to any one of our exceptional stallions, or would like to learn more about the breed, contact us to receive more information, or you could also visit The American Shire Horse Association or The Shire Horse Society in England’s websites.