Investing in the foundations of our breeding industry

With 167 entries for the six-venue Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) mare selections, this very positive initiative continues to have good success. Since it began in 2010, a total of 1,264 sport horse mares and 1,899 Irish Draughts have been assessed.

The goal for sport horse mares is to be designated as select in addition to the possibility of gaining gold stars for either their own or their progeny’s performance. So far 959 have achieved select status. Irish Draught mares aim for Class 1 designation and can aim for a performance bonus of bronze merit. Class 1 status has been attained by 1,113 mares.

Sea change

All of this is a sea change from the bad old days when the only goal for a quality Irish mare was her export. Now we see them as the queens of our horse breeding hive and our most valuable asset, since without them our breeding programme has no foundation.

Any breeder in Ireland now has a vast pool of top flight international performance stallions to choose from, but without quality, performance-assessed mares to put them too all of those sires might as well be roaming on some wild prairie. Giving our mares a select gold star has become more and more important, and that is what these selections are all about.

Reaction

Of all the pieces I have written over the last 40 years for this publication, the most reaction I ever received was in relation to the column published in these pages three weeks ago about sharing our Irish performance data with worldwide digital sites such as Hippomundo.

Recently I noted that this same site now has begun to publish a rating chart on mares that is based on the number of their progeny that have jumped up to 1.45m level. The top dam on their current chart has seven foals that have gone on to achieve that degree of success. I hope that we will soon have mares listed on that chart and that begins with this selection process.

Four assessments have already taken place at Tubberbride, Creagh, Warrington and Ballybrack. Still to come are day-long sessions a Kernan’s Equestrian Centre in Crossmaglen on Thursday next and at Greenogue Equestrian Centre on 13 April.

In addition to all of this, we have learned that the Traditional Irish Horse Association (TIHA) will begin mare selections next autumn and is initiating a high performance mare premium scheme.

In a further development, HSI has extended its Department of Agriculture mare upgrade programme for 2021. Grants of €1,800 are once again available for veterinary and transport costs for any breeder buying an approved filly or retired performance mare from abroad.