Nneither COVID-19 nor the threat of equine herpes virus (EHV–1) could keep a number of the country’s top young sires from recent stallion inspections. Under strict protocols, 44 stallions turned out for the 22nd running of Horse Sport Ireland’s (HSI) Stallion Inspections at Cavan Equestrian Centre during a blustery second week of March.

Overall, there was a 50% success rate, with the sport horse cohort achieving a record 68% pass rate.

This success led HSI director of breeding programmes, Alison Corbally, to say: “We had a significant increase in both numbers and quality of stallions presented this year.”

She was particularly pleased that seven of the sport horse sires met the requirements for both stages one and two to be designated as preliminary approved.

A further four high performance stallions were presented for linear profiling and met all the requirements to be listed as approved in the Irish Sport Horse Studbook.

Out of 18 Irish Draughts inspected just one third made it to class one status.

Getting the message

Having been present for 21 of the 22 inspection sessions at Cavan, I can safely say that for the sport horse sector there has been a gradual sinking in of the message that “meeting the requirements” is no doddle and that the assessment is strict, open and transparent.

Particularly, the more professional stables are bringing forward young sires that truly have something to offer the Irish Studbook.

It also has to be said that the same message has not resonated so clearly with the Irish Draught groups. Consistently a large percentage of Irish Draught colts put forward simply do not meet the requirements for class one and it has always been disappointing to witness this.

It is my feeling that the Irish Draught societies should do some preliminary assessment of their candidates so that a much more positive pass rate can be achieved.

That said, it was still nice to see this time that six with very strong breeding credentials made class one.

Top bloodlines

Some of the world’s top performance bloodlines were evident among the group of 17 sport horse stallions that progressed in various stages toward eventual approval in the Irish Studbook.

The likes of Casall Ark, Indoctro, Clalaoc la Silla, Coronet Obolensky and, yes, Cruising, showed up on the breeding charts.

One of those achieving preliminary approved status was by Numero Cruise who has both Cruising and Clover Hill in his background and was successful at the 2014 inspections.

A full list of stallions that achieved positive results at this 2021 session will be included in our Horse Breeding 2021 feature which will appear in the 3 April edition of Irish Country Living.