By HSI / HSI
Photography: Irish Eventing Times
At the beginning of October, the Irish Sport Horse Studbook was once again crowned the WBFSH leading eventing studbook for 2021-2022. In fact, since these rankings were created in 1994, Irish Sport Horses have won this title for 24 of the 28 years on behalf of their studbook.
Fittingly, the eyes of the eventing world have now turned to Le Lion d’Angers in France for the World Breeding Championships for Young Horses, where the next generation of young stars will take their place in the limelight.
This year, Irish chef d’equipe and former Swedish international eventing rider Dag Albert has selected a squad of 15 horses to represent Ireland, with the Irish Sport Horse taking 14 of those places. In total, of the 118 entries competing for the six- and seven-year-old championship titles, Irish Sport Horse will see 36 horses competing for 12 countries, making ISH the most represented studbook at the 2022 staging of the Mondial du Lion.
The Irish team includes two riders making their championship debut, with Jonathan Steele and Meabh Bolger, plus three Olympic riders in Sarah Ennis, Joseph Murphy, and Aoife Clarke, with the rest of the squad comprising riders who’ve represented Ireland at Junior or Young Rider level, or previously having competed at Le Lion d’Angers.
Speaking about his team selection, Dag Albert had the following to say: “I’m confident in the team that we’ve selected for Ireland this week. There are some very exciting horses included and I think that we’ll definitely be seeing some of them competing at further championships in the future.”
All of Ireland’s WBFSH member studbooks are represented at the Mondial du Lion 2022 with Caroline Powell’s Tik Tok representing the Warmblood Studbook of Ireland (WSI), leading to 37 Irish-bred horses taking their place in the competition and further cementing Ireland’s reputation as the leading nation for producing eventing horses.
Six of the Irish Sport Horse entries are mares this year, with five of those appearing in the seven-year-old division, including Brookwood Supersable (ISH) ridden by Ian Cassells. This mare’s last international outing saw her take fourth place in the Ballindenisk CCI3*S in September... To read the complete article you need to be a subscriber
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