THE line-up of supreme championship contenders in the sunlit Mullingar arena at the Traditional Irish Horse Association (TIHA) performance championships last Sunday evening was a snapshot of the best traditional bloodline ingredients.

You had the elegant Kipling; the Irish Draught influence seen in Majestical Dancer and Clandeboye; an evergreen Connemara ambassador Blackwood Fernando and Ann Lambert’s classic thoroughbred-Irish Draught filly.