Ireland is renowned for breeding great ponies and small horses that went on to amass great achievements. Look for example at Stroller, who was ridden by Marion Coakes. Standing at 14.2hh, this pony won the Queen Elizabeth Cup at the Royal International twice, and was part of three Nations Cup-winning teams.

In recent times, the success at the Pony European Championships and at FEI Pony Jumping Trophy competitions is testimony to the strength of our ponies and their riders. The talent of the ponies and our ability as a nation to produce them has not gone unnoticed and as a result there is a huge demand for Irish-bred ponies.

Valerie Gateau, who buys and sells ponies has found that there is a shortage of ponies in Ireland.

“From my experience and what I hear from others in the industry is that 90% of our jumping ponies that come on the market are sold out of the country and the good ones to Sweden,” she says.

Adrian Williams, who is also an agent for ponies supported this claim and said that: “A lot of our ponies are being sold to the Scandinavian countries and to France. These clients are looking for produced ponies.”

Valerie Gateau's four-year-old stallion D Drim de Brexia winning the 2017 Millstreet Pony Young Irelander (Credit: Justin Black/Milllstreet Horse Photography)

PONY/HORSE COMBINATION

As the market is changing and the demands on these top performance ponies gets greater, we need to ask if we are doing enough to breed performance ponies capable of competing at 1.35m championship level.

There have been a number of one-off stars, whereby breeders thought that they would have bred a horse but it failed to grow. For example, Rincoola Babog (almost 300 SJI points) by Luidam out of the Cruising mare Rincoola Abu.

His breeder, Harold McGahern told The Irish Horse that he was intending to breed a horse and that he had bred that combination on other occasions and the result was a horse.

We can’t replicate one-offs, however some breeders are having success covering pony mares with horse stallions or vice versa.

Coming from a family steeped in breeding success, Clare Hughes-Kennedy is a great example of a breeder choosing proven breeding lines when breeding show jumping ponies. According to Clare: “Genetics are very important in breeding horses and ponies.”

For Clare, the ideal mix for breeding a performance pony is a pony mare covered by a good horse stallion or a good pony stallion covering a horse mare. Clare has used the pony stallion Texass to cover a Diamond Exchange-sired mare, and in terms of horse stallions, Clare has used Luidam, Harlequin Du Carel, Son Of Heartbreaker, Cornet Obolensky, Cobra 18 and Romanov.

You breed with the best to produce the best and then you hope for the best - Denis Harrington

IMPORTANCE OF DAM-LINE

Drumhowan stud told The Irish Horse that there has been an increase in pony breeders using their stallions to breed ponies.

Breeder of the pony stallion Ti Chip, Denis Harrington, who has since sold the stallion to Denmark, also acknowledge the trend of breeders sending pony mares to horse stallions.

In fact, he said when he was breeding this is what he mostly chose to do himself.

He emphasised the importance of good breeding lines and the importance of the dam-line, saying that, in his opinion, the mare is even more important than the choice of stallion. He said: “You breed with the best to produce the best and then you hope for the best.”

Pony breeding is getting very commercial, with the top ponies commanding in the region of €150k, we need to look seriously at pony breeding methods.

Connemara stars

Team gold medal and individual silver medal winners Kate Derwin and Cul Ban Mistress (CP) at the 2017 FEI European Show Jumping Championships for Ponies in Hungary

Some say that the Connemara pony has served us well but question if this breed has enough blood for top competition. But this breed cannot be dismissed.

Cul Ban Mistress won individual silver and team gold at the 2017 pony European championships. Ballyowen Maybelle Molly won individual gold and team silver at the 2009 European Championships and was later sold to Belgium.

The late Sillogue Darkie qualified for the prestigious 148cm All-Ireland Championship at the RDS seven years in a row. He Competed on numerous pony Nations Cup teams and contributed to silver and bronze medals at European level.

These are just a few examples of the many impressive pure-bred Connemara ponies.

HIGH-PRIORITY ISSUE

In Ireland we have a serious issue of breeding lines not being recorded. Therefore we can’t identify trends of breeding combinations that worked. Things are changing however and pedigree recording is on the rise.

If we look to mainland Europe, recording bloodlines of ponies is of the utmost importance. In France you can’t jump ponies if the breeding is not recorded.

The Irish Horse Board have been actively trying to combat this issue and are positive toward the way recent incentives have taken off. At the Cavan pony show last July, the Irish Sport Pony Studbook sent a representative along with a vet to do on-site markings and take hair samples to DNA test performance ponies.

Progress

The Irish Sport Pony studbook are still offering a registration rate of €30, including DNA testing for registering a pony with full parentage in the studbook.

This rate is a reduction of €150 from non-shareholder prices and they are happy to continue this offer into 2018 (contact IHB for requirements).

In the horse industry, it’s a known fact that the ISH Studbook Show Jumping series encourages breeders and owners to keep their animals in Ireland and perhaps this is what is needed for pony breeders.

Last year the Irish Sport Pony Studbook sponsored classes at Millstreet and Cavan in which ponies registered in an approved studbook were eligible to compete. This was met with a favourable response, and the Irish Horse Board intends to build on this success in the future.

Pony stallions are currently inspected with horse stallions but it is envisage that the Irish Horse Board will hold specific pony inspection dates in the future.

DIFFICULTIES

Of course breeding ponies comes with its own difficulties. The first being the length of time and the expense of producing ponies. If you are producing a pony for your own child, by the time they have the mileage up on the pony they already outgrown it.

Another element is getting the right size, you may be looking to breed a 148cm pony, but you end up with a small horse. Andrea Etter of Belmont House Stud is no stranger to breeding horses and this season the 14.2hh pony stallion Machnus d’Hyrencourt, bred by Luc and Andre Henry in Belgium, will be available at Belmont House Stud by mostly frozen semen and part of the season by chilled season.

Etter identifies one element that may help breeders: “If a category for ponies/horses between 14.2hh and 15.2hh was introduced this could help breeders who have ended up with a big pony. In Holland they have this category, called E Pony and it works very well.

“This would create a market for those ponies that have grown too much and would put more of a value on them.”

Clare Hughes Kennedy suggested that introducing a four and five-year old-class would also be beneficial as it would create a demand for younger ponies.

The face of pony breeding is changing in Ireland and in order to develop this side of the industry we need to adopt the same practices that have helped develop the horse industry.