Sampson was a Shire horse

gelding A gelding is a castration, castrated male horse or other equine, such as a pony, donkey or a mule. Castration, as well as the elimination of hormonally driven horse behavior, behavior associated with a stallion, allows a male equine to be calmer a ...

foal A foal is an equine up to one year old; this term is used mainly for horses, but can be used for donkeys. More specific terms are colt for a male foal and filly for a female foal, and are used until the horse is three or four. When the foal ...

ed in 1846 in Toddington Mills,

Bedfordshire Bedfordshire (; abbreviated Beds) is a ceremonial county in the East of England. The county has been administered by three unitary authorities, Borough of Bedford, Central Bedfordshire and Borough of Luton, since Bedfordshire County Council ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

. He was the tallest and heaviest

horse The horse (''Equus ferus caballus'') is a domesticated, one-toed, hoofed mammal. It belongs to the taxonomic family Equidae and is one of two extant subspecies of ''Equus ferus''. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million ...

ever recorded, at 21.5 hands. Owned by Thomas Cleaver, Sampson stood high by the time he was four years old, when he was renamed Mammoth. His peak weight was estimated at .Whitaker ''The Horse'' p. 60 He was gelded at approximately one and a half years old.''Encyclopedia of the Horse'', Norris, Carlos R., 1998, p. 174.

References

1846 animal births Individual draft horses Individual male horses World record holders Biological records Horses in the United Kingdom {{horse-stub