Irish Sports Horse

The Irish sports horse is a type of horse bred in Ireland under the leadership of the association of the ‘Irish Horse Board. The Irish sport horses are basically crosses between the English Thoroughbreds and Irish draft horses resulting in an animal that must be athletic with good skills to compete at a high level within any riding discipline.

They horse is not yet recognized as a breed, but has a good reputation as a natural talent in the equestrian sports arena

The Irish sport horse bred project was developed using the model originally developed in Britain during the late 1800, where the use of the English Thoroughbred was used in a breeding programme to improve the English hunter horse breed for hunting and riding sports.

During the 1900 and the growing interest in equestrian sport worldwide, the British Association saw the need to develop a pure breed sport horse for all disciplines of riding such as dressage, show jumping and eventing.

The British sport horses were bred selectively, but with a large variety of different horse breeds, and records were kept, and in Ireland a similar programme was initiated bit there are no proper records in the stud book regarding the larger breeds of horses that were used to out breed too.

The Irish Draft horses are heavier than the Warmblood horses and so carriage horses were often used for the sport of hunting and the breed was improved by breeding with the Thoroughbred horses to create an easier more true to type and a more athletic horse.

To coordinate this breeding program and create a stud book and a more selective breeding plan, the association launched the Irish Horse Board in 1993.

They association took over the care of the ordinary stud ordinary books and the breeding of both the Irish sport horse and the Irish Draft horses. The association set up strict rules in order to increase the quality of the Irish sport horses.

Only cross breeding between the Irish Draft and the English thoroughbred was permissible. Since 1999, the Irish sport horse has achieved great success on the racetracks, and the stud book has been expanded to include a crossing program where horses may be bred with the Anglo-Arabian, Connemara pony and the Arabian horse and their offspring registered if they meet the tough criteria.

Attributes

Irish rider Leslie Law and the Irish sport horse, Shear H2O in eventing at Burghley in 2004. Unlike the British sports horse, who was the model for the Irish sport horse, the Irish farmers are strictly maintain the blood lines of their horses and the horses must also conform to a specific standard that is set for registered horses.

Standards include the height at the withers set between 150 and 160 cm for mares while stallions have to reach over 160 cm in order to pass.

Foals that are born must be registered if both parents are registered in the regular part of the book and meets all criteria. The Irish sports horse must have the correct gaits and be comfortable to ride with a manageable temperament.

They horse must have a noble and athletic appearance with long, well-muscled legs. The head is attractive, with either straight or slightly outward-curving bridge of the nose. The back is short and compact but powerful. All colours are allowed but it is unusual to skewed or brindle horses.

The horses should be athletic and have good abilities to be used both for pleasure riding and for racing at high level. The Irish sports horse must be strong, fast and intelligent.

The Irish sports horse can also be divided into three categories.
The first is the Lightweight horse intended to be used for a rider weighing less than 70 kg, also recommended as an ideal Lady’s Horse.

The second is the average weight carrying horse able to carry riders between 70 and 90 kg, being the most common type of horse of the breed today and also used as a wagon or carriage horse.
The third are the heavyweights, intended to carry riders over 90 kg, or used for lighter weight farm work.

The strength of the horse and conformation is suitable for basically all weights of riders so it is rare to see the classifications from lightweight to heavy and mid weight horses used in promoting the horse in a specific weight carrying class.