THE Traditional Irish Horse (TIH) is a unique combination of up to three breeds, the Irish Draught, the Connemara pony and the thoroughbred. All three breeds have strong links to the Irish bobby, a long extinct ancient Irish breed. Genetic research (Hill and Bower 2010) has shown that the breeds most closely related to the thoroughbred are the Irish Draught and the Connemara.

The Traditional Irish Horse (originally known as the Irish Hunter) was fully established as a sport horse breed centuries before most of its continental counterparts and was used as a breed improver for many of these breeds.