In today’s world there is very little that, once lost, cannot be replaced. There is clearly one exception to this statement – an endangered species. Anyone that has looked at this subject in any depth will tell you, the Traditionally Bred Irish horse is an endangered species. For hundreds of years the world beat a path to Ireland to buy its horses. They had all that was needed for fighting wars, drawing carriages, taking you hunting and, as equestrian sport was developed, to compete at the very highest level. The farmers in Ireland had bred these much sought after animals by crossing their working mares with the strong Thoroughbred. This cross produced a good looking animal that had brain, stamina, talent and best of all they stayed sound. The Thoroughbred part of the partnership can be found in most countries of the developed world and because of the power of the Stud Book, this breed has remained pure and true to type. The Irish working mare, said by some to have originated from imported Andalusian horses, can be found nowhere else and became the ‘Irish Draught’ with its own stud book. Over the years the recording of their breeding was incomplete at best and many animals were ‘imported’ into the stud book because they were ‘of a type’ that those in charge thought would improve the breed. The great Clover Hill was in fact more thoroughbred than working horse but he was considered to be the correct type and that decision has proved to be correct. There are of course other Irish Draught Societies elsewhere in the world. We will be returning to these another time.
           

Most horses in Ireland are bred by small breeders who keep only two or three mares. It is these breeders who have produced the animals that have drawn the world to this island to buy their horses. What then do these breeders want? They want to breed a foal that needs little tending when born and can be sold at weaning for a profit. The mare will almost certainly have lived out all year with just a little hay and almost without exception they are good mothers. So the breeder has the raw material and now they must look at what the buyer wants. The buyers come in three types. Some are dealers, who buy the foal and quickly sell it on and turn a profit. There are those who buy the foals as stores, looking to keep them for a year or two before selling them on perhaps broken and ‘jumping a little’. The third group of buyers are getting rarer, for they buy off the farm and keep the young horse until it is ready to compete. They may all buy for different reasons but they are alike in one respect, they want an animal that will grow well and are easy to keep while they have it in their care. When the buyers are ready to turn their profit they will be looking for potential owners.
They must always be considering what these owners will be looking for when they want to buy. A very few of these ‘owners’ will be looking for a horse to win a Grand Prix. There are few of these clients and it is a very specialised market. The Show Jumpers mostly feel that they need a warmblood to compete with the warmbloods of the continental opposition and thus they go to the centre of that gene pool to buy these horses, the continent. Those who want to win a four star event will probably look at where other winners have come from; by far the most have in fact come from Ireland. However, the vast majority of the ‘owners’ are looking for a horse that will entertain them. It might be that they will want it to hunt, event and show in local shows, in fact they want an all rounder. They will not want a horse that is difficult to handle nor will they want an animal that suffers whimpishly if it is cold or wet, it must remain sound and it must have an easy going temperament. A failing in any of these departments and the horse becomes a chore rather than a joy.

So if the majority of the ‘owners’ want an easily managed sound horse but with a little class then that is what the ‘buyers’ will be looking for and that is what the breeders should be breeding. That is exactly what the Traditional Irish Breeder has been doing for generations. It is therefore desperately important that the buyer and the owner are made aware that this is what they are buying. The Irish Horse Board keeps the records but their hands are tied by European Law. The term Irish Sport Horse, as has been said before, can mean anything. It could be a Traditionally Irish Bred horse or it could be a pure Hannovarian. Clearly the buyer and the owner will want to know. They will not want to have to go to the Horse Board to check up on what other breeds may be represented in the pedigree.

The time has surely come to give some sort of guarantee as to the breeding of the horse you are selling. As we have said, buyers and owners come to Ireland to buy Irish, they will go to Germany to buy Hannovarian and to Holland to buy a Dutch Warmblood. They will not pay top dollar for an Irish bred animal in Holland and the reverse is true. How then do we give them the information they need to be sure that they are buying Irish? Because of the law the IHB are not permitted to differentiate and thus it must be done another way. I suggest that the way is to give the horse recognition of the purity of its breeding.

The Traditionally Irish Bred horse is a cross between a Thoroughbred and a Pure Irish Draught. I suggest that any horse proved to be of this cross should carry the initials TIB1. The other very popular cross is between a TIB1 and a thoroughbred - a TIB 2 perhaps. Because we still have many mares (and some stallions) where we don’t know the purity of their grand-parents, perhaps a horse where the breed of two grand parents is unknown could be a TIB3.
 

Charlie Ripman 4/12/05.