‘Having a winner at the show is the best of all’

WALKING across the busy road outside the Royal Dublin Society complex in Ballsbridge was not for the fainthearted yesterday.

The daily stream of traffic was boosted by the flow of vehicles going and coming from the opening day of the Failte Ireland Dublin Horse Show.

But it was not always like that as the celebrated Irish Draught Horse breeder Billy Cotter, Countess Stud, Farranmareen, Enniskeane, Co Cork, recalled as he prepared to head to the RDS for his forty-second consecutive show.

He travelled to his first Dublin Show in 1967 with his promising black mare Enniskeane Countess.

The mare had been invited to take part in the Irish Draught championship which had been revived after a lapse of 42 years.

It was all part of an effort by the Department of Agriculture and the RDS to develop the native Irish Draught breed which had played a vital role in the country’s farming life.

But the breed was also hailed as the essential foundation stock for Irish sport horses when crossed with thoroughbred blood.

And with the growth of the leisure industry, the temperament of the Irish Draught made it ideally suited for the world’s show jumping arenas and eventing courses.

Enniskeane Countess won the mare championship in 1967 when the prize was £25, was second the following year and had the unique distinction of being invited back a third time.

Mr Cotter was offered the then attractive sum of £1,200 by an American woman for the mare, but he turned it down for a very good reason. “I knew I had a good one,” he said.

That decision was to have a positive influence on Irish Draught breeding because Enniskeane Countess became a legend with a breeding and performance dynasty few mares can match.

Her daughter, Kildalton Countess, one of the great foundation mares in the breed, was the dam of five registered Irish Draught stallions that made names for themselves.

Enniskeane Countess was also the great grand-dam of Heather Blaze and Coolcorron Cool Diamond, with whom Robert Splaine, the current Chef d’Equipe of the Irish show jumping team, had international successes.

Mr Cotter, who is in the process of writing a book about Enniskeane Countess, now has the fourth generation of the famous mare at his stud in West Cork.

But he will be back at the RDS today with his wife Kitty to cast a shrewd eye on the quality of the entries in the Irish Draught classes.

And he will remember with fondness and no little nostalgia that special August day in 1967 when he won the mare championship.

He brought Enniskeane Countess to Dublin on a train from Cork – special horse carriages were provided by CIE at that time.

The train went on to one of the rail stations near Ballsbridge, on a line now used by the Dart service, and then he walked the mare towards the showgrounds, crossed the road and into the pages of Irish horse breeding history.

“It was easy to walk across the street in those days. There was not as much traffic around as there is today,” he said.

Mr Cotter, a founder and former president of the Irish Draught Horse Society, said he is eagerly looking forward to yet another Dublin Horse Show.

“There is something special about the RDS,” he said.

“Having a winner there is the best of all.”