PROFILING and benchmarking the Irish sport horse mare herd was one of the key recommendations of the Reaching New Heights report, a development strategy for the sport horse industry launched in March 2015. It is regarded as the first step on the road to genetic progress for the Irish sport horse.

Researcher Marcus O’Donnell is trying to bring the sport horse sector in line with the thoroughbred sector by blacktyping the entire Irish mare herd as well as trying to identify promising stallion lines.