IHB breed incentives criticised

A BID to bring back the quintessential Irish sport horse — a draught horse crossed with thoroughbreds — has sparked debate among breeders.

With increased availability of European stallions to Irish breeders in recent years, use of thoroughbreds waned. Now, the Irish Horse Board aims to address this trend by encouraging owners of top-class thoroughbred stallions to put them forward for use in the sport horse industry, and by subsidising the cost to mare owners of using these elite thoroughbred stallions. But these incentive schemes are taking the sport horse industry backwards, and will hinder its re-development, warns stud owner Tom Meagher.

“The Horse Board say that, by using thoroughbreds, you can end up with the desired product, but I believe only portions of thoroughbred blood are required. Thoroughbreds need to be used proportionately,” said the owner of Kedrah House Stud in Tipperary. “These incentives will give a disproportionate number of mares to thoroughbreds. This will adversely affect the number of mares going to non-thoroughbred stallions of equal merit, for example, Cruising, those with Cavalier bloodlines, and my own Lux Z and Ricardo Z. Basically, the Horse Board is being over-simplistic with our breeding programme.”