Fifty years after it was published, the late author John Healy’s masterpiece No One Shouted Stop! rings as true today for parts of Ireland with its theme of emigration and rural decline.
The same fate may well have applied to traditional Irish horse breeding had the Traditional Irish Horse Association (TIHA) not been revitalised in 2012, with its mission of preserving traditional bloodlines.
That TIHA mission continues as their, redoubtable chairman, Hugh Leonard outlines their latest plan to breed a homegrown stallion prospect: “We used Ardcolum Duke to cover a mare named Strandeen Western Diamond (Western Promise x King of Diamonds) and she duly produced, in my view, a very special colt which the TIHA bought from Gary Blaney.
“We now have that yearling with David Molloy, who’s rearing him on. David has three stallions already including Portlaoise First Touch, which is the last living son of Errigal Flight. The plan is to grow this colt on until he’s three, break him in and cover five or six mares with him.
“We’ll see what the progeny are like when he’s four. If we like them, we’ll keep him on and store some semen from him. If not, we’ll cut him.”
MARE SCHEME
Another scheme involves cherry-picked traditional mares. “What we’re about to do right now is we picked some mares from the RDS elite book and David, Seamus Davis and myself will talk to some owners and offer free covers for four traditional sires we have in mind.
“We know of nine that are willing already and they’re happy to go ahead and do a traditional cross. The sires we pick will be selected on the basis of how their pedigree fits in with the mares’.
“What we’re hoping to do next summer is have a field evening with some of the good traditional breeders with reasonable numbers of mares – over 10 or 20 mares. We’ll be walking through the fields and seeing the mares with the progeny by their sides.”
January 2014 (L to r) David McCann, Joan Bateman and Hugh Leonard Credit: Susan Finnerty(L to r) David McCann, Joan Bateman and Hugh Leonard of TIHA Credit: Susan Finnerty
THOROUGHBRED SHORTAGE
Figures show that thoroughbreds are the most popular covering choice for traditional breeders, headed by Master Imp’s sole thoroughbred son Golden Master. “We’ve a shortage of good thoroughbred sires at the moment,” acknowledges Leonard.
“There’s a great deal of controversy going on what you should be breeding; continental or traditional. If you take traditional youngstock to the sales, do you lose money? But foreign cross horses go out unsold too.”
Run on a shoestring budget, there is no doubting the TIHA’s Dunkirk-style commitment to halting the loss of certain bloodlines and promoting traditional-breds to their markets. “It has been slow and there’s been stumbling blocks, but I’m beginning to see the road ahead,” says Leonard. No one can claim that he didn’t say ‘Stop!’.
RETURNS FOR BREEDERS
Should traditional Irish bloodlines be preserved? Many performance breeders often respond to this debate with ‘no, times have moved on’ and ‘Warmbloods will take over here the same way as Irish farmers started using Charolais and Belgian Blues’, while staunch supporters will point out the successes of traditional-breds and are often realistic about intended markets.
“In the quest to breed the exceptional animal, which is the modern international show jumper, have we neglected the 80% or more of our sport horse trade destined for the eventing, showing, amateur, leisure and hunter markets?” is a question asked on the TIHA website.
The leading traditional-bred show jumping horses in last year’s WBFSH rankings were Ardcolum Duke (390th) and Hallowberry Cruz (605th).
However, will these markets provide a fair return for traditional breeders or do they face the universal reality that horse breeding is often a labour of love instead of returning a substantial profit on a spreadsheet?
Vere Phillips summed it up best in his succinct tweet about buyers looking for four-star event prospects for bargain prices. Are buyers, who yearn for traditional-breds, prepared to pay a premium for the best of traditional-breds?
And only the best of any breed can justify their price tag, as a ‘label’ doesn’t automatically entitle sellers to bump up prices, as happened when Connemaras and Irish Draughts were fashionable.
Whatever the label – traditional, native or warmblood – the horse still has to deliver.
There are other tough questions to be faced. What is the age demographic of the 743 breeders that bred a traditional foal? Likewise, will the next generation of stud owners be prepared to source and stand traditional stallions?
The start of the breeding season is the time for any breeder to ask questions.
DID YOU KNOW?
Sam Watson's Ardagh Highlight was the sole traditional-bred amongst the victorious Irish Sport Horse team that won the WBFSH eventing studbook title (Photo: Equus Pix) PAID County Galway leads the way for breeding traditional with 127 TIH foals recorded in 2016, followed by Wexford (113) and Cork (108). Other top-10 counties included Tipperary (55), Clare (52), Carlow (44), Wicklow (44), Kilkenny (33), Westmeath (33) and Roscommon (32). The most popular traditional cross was TB x ISH (249 foals); followed by ID x ISH (178) and ISH x ISH (151). Thoroughbred sires produced the most TIH foals (390), headed by Golden Master (31 foals), Financial Reward (28) and Spirit House (22). Loughehoe Guy (21), Kings Master (16) and CC Captain Cruise (15) were the predominant traditional Irish Sport Horse sires, while amongst the native breed sires, Rebel Mountain (17), Dunbeggan Grey Mist (13) and Lock Key (9) were the most used Irish Draught sires and the Connemara pony stallions Anbally Frankie, Drimcong Cover, Gerranmo and Kildromin Major each produced four traditional-bred foals. The leading traditional-bred show jumping horses in last year’s WBFSH rankings were Ardcolum Duke (390th) and Hallowberry Cruz (605th). Ardagh Highlight was the sole traditional-bred amongst the victorious Irish Sport Horse team that won the WBFSH eventing studbook title. 2016 TRADITIONAL
FOAL FIGURES
951 - The number of foals identified as traditional-breds.
743 - The number of breeders who bred a traditional foal.
608 - (82%) The number of traditional breeders who bred one foal. Compare that to just 36 (5%) that bred between three to 10 traditional foals.
271 - The number of stallions that sired a traditional foal.
50 - The percentage of Irish Draught dams, aged between six and 10 years of age, that produced a traditional foal. The same age group accounted for the highest percentage (40%) of ISH dams, while 46% of thoroughbred broodmares were aged between 11 to 15 years.
41 - The percentage of the TIH foal crop that was sired by thoroughbred sires, the most popular covering sire choice among traditional breeders.
Fifty years after it was published, the late author John Healy’s masterpiece No One Shouted Stop! rings as true today for parts of Ireland with its theme of emigration and rural decline.
The same fate may well have applied to traditional Irish horse breeding had the Traditional Irish Horse Association (TIHA) not been revitalised in 2012, with its mission of preserving traditional bloodlines.
That TIHA mission continues as their, redoubtable chairman, Hugh Leonard outlines their latest plan to breed a homegrown stallion prospect: “We used Ardcolum Duke to cover a mare named Strandeen Western Diamond (Western Promise x King of Diamonds) and she duly produced, in my view, a very special colt which the TIHA bought from Gary Blaney.
“We now have that yearling with David Molloy, who’s rearing him on. David has three stallions already including Portlaoise First Touch, which is the last living son of Errigal Flight. The plan is to grow this colt on until he’s three, break him in and cover five or six mares with him.
“We’ll see what the progeny are like when he’s four. If we like them, we’ll keep him on and store some semen from him. If not, we’ll cut him.”
MARE SCHEME
Another scheme involves cherry-picked traditional mares. “What we’re about to do right now is we picked some mares from the RDS elite book and David, Seamus Davis and myself will talk to some owners and offer free covers for four traditional sires we have in mind.
“We know of nine that are willing already and they’re happy to go ahead and do a traditional cross. The sires we pick will be selected on the basis of how their pedigree fits in with the mares’.
“What we’re hoping to do next summer is have a field evening with some of the good traditional breeders with reasonable numbers of mares – over 10 or 20 mares. We’ll be walking through the fields and seeing the mares with the progeny by their sides.”
January 2014 (L to r) David McCann, Joan Bateman and Hugh Leonard Credit: Susan Finnerty(L to r) David McCann, Joan Bateman and Hugh Leonard of TIHA Credit: Susan Finnerty
THOROUGHBRED SHORTAGE
Figures show that thoroughbreds are the most popular covering choice for traditional breeders, headed by Master Imp’s sole thoroughbred son Golden Master. “We’ve a shortage of good thoroughbred sires at the moment,” acknowledges Leonard.
“There’s a great deal of controversy going on what you should be breeding; continental or traditional. If you take traditional youngstock to the sales, do you lose money? But foreign cross horses go out unsold too.”
Run on a shoestring budget, there is no doubting the TIHA’s Dunkirk-style commitment to halting the loss of certain bloodlines and promoting traditional-breds to their markets. “It has been slow and there’s been stumbling blocks, but I’m beginning to see the road ahead,” says Leonard. No one can claim that he didn’t say ‘Stop!’.
RETURNS FOR BREEDERS
Should traditional Irish bloodlines be preserved? Many performance breeders often respond to this debate with ‘no, times have moved on’ and ‘Warmbloods will take over here the same way as Irish farmers started using Charolais and Belgian Blues’, while staunch supporters will point out the successes of traditional-breds and are often realistic about intended markets.
“In the quest to breed the exceptional animal, which is the modern international show jumper, have we neglected the 80% or more of our sport horse trade destined for the eventing, showing, amateur, leisure and hunter markets?” is a question asked on the TIHA website.
The leading traditional-bred show jumping horses in last year’s WBFSH rankings were Ardcolum Duke (390th) and Hallowberry Cruz (605th).
However, will these markets provide a fair return for traditional breeders or do they face the universal reality that horse breeding is often a labour of love instead of returning a substantial profit on a spreadsheet?
Vere Phillips summed it up best in his succinct tweet about buyers looking for four-star event prospects for bargain prices. Are buyers, who yearn for traditional-breds, prepared to pay a premium for the best of traditional-breds?
And only the best of any breed can justify their price tag, as a ‘label’ doesn’t automatically entitle sellers to bump up prices, as happened when Connemaras and Irish Draughts were fashionable.
Whatever the label – traditional, native or warmblood – the horse still has to deliver.
There are other tough questions to be faced. What is the age demographic of the 743 breeders that bred a traditional foal? Likewise, will the next generation of stud owners be prepared to source and stand traditional stallions?
The start of the breeding season is the time for any breeder to ask questions.
DID YOU KNOW?
Sam Watson's Ardagh Highlight was the sole traditional-bred amongst the victorious Irish Sport Horse team that won the WBFSH eventing studbook title (Photo: Equus Pix) PAID County Galway leads the way for breeding traditional with 127 TIH foals recorded in 2016, followed by Wexford (113) and Cork (108). Other top-10 counties included Tipperary (55), Clare (52), Carlow (44), Wicklow (44), Kilkenny (33), Westmeath (33) and Roscommon (32). The most popular traditional cross was TB x ISH (249 foals); followed by ID x ISH (178) and ISH x ISH (151). Thoroughbred sires produced the most TIH foals (390), headed by Golden Master (31 foals), Financial Reward (28) and Spirit House (22). Loughehoe Guy (21), Kings Master (16) and CC Captain Cruise (15) were the predominant traditional Irish Sport Horse sires, while amongst the native breed sires, Rebel Mountain (17), Dunbeggan Grey Mist (13) and Lock Key (9) were the most used Irish Draught sires and the Connemara pony stallions Anbally Frankie, Drimcong Cover, Gerranmo and Kildromin Major each produced four traditional-bred foals. The leading traditional-bred show jumping horses in last year’s WBFSH rankings were Ardcolum Duke (390th) and Hallowberry Cruz (605th). Ardagh Highlight was the sole traditional-bred amongst the victorious Irish Sport Horse team that won the WBFSH eventing studbook title. 2016 TRADITIONAL
FOAL FIGURES
951 - The number of foals identified as traditional-breds.
743 - The number of breeders who bred a traditional foal.
608 - (82%) The number of traditional breeders who bred one foal. Compare that to just 36 (5%) that bred between three to 10 traditional foals.
271 - The number of stallions that sired a traditional foal.
50 - The percentage of Irish Draught dams, aged between six and 10 years of age, that produced a traditional foal. The same age group accounted for the highest percentage (40%) of ISH dams, while 46% of thoroughbred broodmares were aged between 11 to 15 years.
41 - The percentage of the TIH foal crop that was sired by thoroughbred sires, the most popular covering sire choice among traditional breeders.
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