By Horse Sport Ireland / HSI
Photography: Laurence Dunn, Charlotte Brown, Dennis P. Castro
The 2023 Horse Sport Ireland Stallion Selections took place over two days, March 22 and 23 at the Cavan Cavan Equestrian Centre. These selections are supported by the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine Equine Technical Support fund.
Across the two days, a total of 39 stallions were presented for inspection, six Irish Sport Horse stallions, seven Foreign bred stallions, three Thoroughbred stallions, one pony stallion and 22 Irish Draught stallions. In the Irish Draught stallion selections, of the 22 presented for inspection, 10 achieved Class 1 status.
Five stallions were approved for the Irish Sport Horse Studbook, two of which were high-performance stallions presented for linear profiling that met all the requirements; the second stallion approved was an Irish Sport Pony stallion. This Irish Sport Pony is also classified as Preliminary Approved in the Irish Sport Pony studbook. Two Thoroughbred stallions were approved, of which one was approved based on his timeform rating, while the other stallion met the Irish Sport Horse Studbook requirements on the inspection day.
Of the 12 stallions presented for Stage 1 for the Irish Sport Horse Studbook, five of these met the requirements, while one, plus two from the previous year, went on to present for Stage 2 assessment. Two of the horses presented for Stage 2 met the requirements to be classified as Preliminary Approved.
According to Liam Cotter, Irish Draught Studbook selection panel chairperson; “We were very pleased to see 22 well-presented young stallions come forward, and delighted to see 10 of them achieve Class 1 status. The standard of those who met the requirements was higher than previous years, and we saw a marked improvement on foreleg conformation and movement in particular. Some of the horses forward could have done with more time to mature and develop.”
Jack Doyle, Irish Sport Horse Studbook selection panel chairperson continued by saying; “Year on year the quality of stallions being presented improves. This year there were some very impressive young stallions accepted and the panel were pleased with the stallions that met the requirements for Approved, Preliminary Approved and Stage 1. We’d also like to acknowledge the standard of presentation for the horses that were brought forward to the selections.”.. To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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