THE Irish Draught Horse Breeders Association National Breed Show will be held on Saturday, September 1st at Punchestown racecourse, Co Kildare. The IDHBA National Breed Show is Ireland’s largest show of pure-bred Irish Draughts and entries close on Friday, August 24th next.

The event was officially launched by Minister Andrew Doyle at Punchestown racecourse on Friday afternoon.

The launch of the schedule took place at the Co Laois Branch’s recent annual show at Stradbally Hall. Councillor Mark Dalton from Kildare County Council officially launch the schedule which contains details of three new classes at this year’s National Show which promises to be bigger and better than ever.

With funding from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine along with Kildare County Council this year, the IDHBA National Show is proud to be able to host a wide range of classes with total prize money of over €12,000.

Most notably this year there is a new class ‘The IDHBA Premier Mare and Foal class’ with mares and foals being judged as a unit and prize money of €1,500 including prize money for the breeder of the winning mare and the stallion owner of the winning foal. New to the schedule this year also is a ridden class for purebred ID mares and €300 in prize money. The Traditional horses are well catered for also this year with a Working Hunter Class for TIH’s and a prize fund of €1,500 also on offer.

More information and the IDHBA National Show schedule can be found online at http://www.idhba.ie/nationalshow2018.html