A TOTAL prize fund of just over €12,000 will be on offer at the 2018 Irish Draught Horse Breeders’ Association National Show in Punchestown on Saturday, September 1st. As always there is a wide selection of classes for both ridden horses and horses shown in-hand, all of which are open to both IDHBA members and non-members.

This year two new classes have been added to the schedule. The inaugural Premier Mare & Foal Championship will offer a prize-pot of €1,500 in addition to stallion nominations for the top six mares. This class is designed to showcase the Irish Draught broodmare and foal as a unit.

Also new to the programme is a ridden class for Irish Draught mares only. In recent years the ridden classes at this show have become hugely popular, and the Irish Horse Gateway National Performance Irish Draught Championship, worth €1,000, is always hotly-contested.

Irish Horse Gateway will also offer the Inward Buyer Scheme for registered horses exhibited at the show.

Other ridden classes include those for side-saddle and working hunter class for traditional Irish horses, sponsored by the Horse Sport Ireland Breeding Fund to the tune of €1,500.

Over in the in-hand rings, the ever-popular FBD Mare of the Future for four, five and six-year-old mares (with a foal at foot) boasts a prize-fund of €600.

Entries close on Friday, August 24th.

(A full show schedule and more information is available on www.idhba.ie)