martin clunes looks at the important role of the world's working horses as he begins training his
own adored clydesdales to work on his dorset farm in martin clunes: heavy horsepower. the one off
film follows martin putting ronnie and bruce through their paces, and his travels to europe and
america to discover how working horses are proving their value again in the modern world. heavy
horses have been used to work in the mines, on canals and for delivering beer in britain for
hundreds of years. but some breeds, including the clydesdales were nearly extinct in the 1970s as
machinery took over the work martin discovers the traditional uses of the working horse, and how
people are finding new ways to keep horses working in today's world of high tech equipment. he
travels to a beautiful vineyard in northern italy to meet henry finzi-constantine who believes that
horses are better for the soil than tractors. he says the horses not only work the land but
fertilise it at the same time. martin drives the cart drawn by the "rolls royce of horses", the
comptoires, as the grapes are harvested. martin's journey also takes him to the french fishing town
of boulogne-sur-mer, where he takes part in a traditional competition with 12 teams of heavy horses
harnessed to boats filled with sand, which have to be dragged along the beach. martin joins the
british team with their suffolk punch horses.
