THE majority of the 84 mares put forward for the recent Horse Sport Ireland mare inspections were Irish Draughts (65), while 19 were Irish Sport Horse Studbook entries.

The inspections, held last month at five venues - Tubberbride Stables, Co Sligo; Creagh Equestrian Centre, Co Galway; West Cork Equestrian Centre; East Clare Equestrian Centre and Topflight Equestrian Centre, Co Kilkenny - saw mares undergo a clinical veterinary examination before being assessed by a panel of two HSI inspectors for conformation and movement traits. Irish Draught mares are also required to meet an overall score for ‘Type’.

Sean Scannell of West Cork Equestrian Centre commented: “The inspections are a necessity in this country. Without inspections, we would have no way of showing off our top class quality mares that we are breeding and producing. I feel that every ID mare should be inspected to differentiate between class 1 mares and the rest of the herd. This is the only way to improve and maintain our ID breed and top bloodlines.”

In order to qualify for ‘Select’ or ‘Class 1’ status, mares must meet the veterinary requirements and achieve the minimum scores for ‘Conformation’ and ‘Movement’.

In the Irish Draught Studbook, a total of 36 mares were classified as Class 1, with five achieving a bronze merit for athleticism and a further three achieving a bronze merit for conformation and movement. To be awarded a bronze merit in the athleticism phase of the selection the Class 1 mare has to achieve a score of 70 or higher and to be awarded a bronze merit for movement and conformation, the Class 1 mare has scores of 80 or higher for both. Nine mares presented for Irish Draught Studbook were classified as Class 2 and only one mare presented for Grade Up and met the criteria. The Grade Up mare entered also received a bronze merit for her athleticism.

In the Irish Sport Horse Studbook, 13 mares were classified in the higher category of Select with two of these mares achieving the 1 star for Athleticism, which requires a score of 80 or higher. Two mares and one gelding were classified as Supplementary Select with one also achieving the 1 star for Athleticism.

Ronan Stynes and Linda O’Byrne commented: “We recently put forward our Draught mare, Lilliputs Top Dollar (by Scrapman/Moylough Bouncer) for inspection at Warrington Equestrian. We found the whole experience very helpful in pointing us in the right direction as this was our first mare to put forward and we now plan to produce her and breed from her. It was also fantastic to see the Draught breed being so well represented on the day.”