THE increasingly wide-open nature of Irish Sport Horse breeding is contained in the 2018 foal book, produced by Horse Sport Ireland. The latest publication, released during Dublin Horse Show week, is interesting as it is now a decade on from the Celtic Tiger boom and when the number of sport horse foals registrations peaked at an all-time high (7,633) in 2008.

What are the key changes in the past 10 years? The biggest sea change is the ongoing rise in popularity of the continental stallion, now the first choice for breeders. Some 37.2% of the 2018 foal crop were by imported and AI – available continental sires, (up from 21.5% in 2008) and a substantial leap from 2008 when just 8.2% of registered foals were by warmblood sires.