I’ve just finished mopping up the coffee I haplessly knocked over my desk as I simultaneously tried to keep the dogs and my husband quiet whilst I attend an online meeting, message my vet, track a horse going to France and order new semen from Germany after my chosen stallion was sold out…time and ovulation waits for no one!

It’s a hectic time for sports horse breeders, and so when we see our Irish breeders do well, it always lifts the heart.

This month, Patrick Kehoe’s homebred ABC Saving Grace, a seven-year-old daughter of Kannan and Cruising (ISH) out of Ardnehue Diamond Cruiser (ISH), and half-sister of the Grand Prix horses ABC Quantum Cruise (ISH) sold at the Aloga auction for a whopping €550,000.

Gold

I had the great pleasure of interviewing Kehoe just after ABC Saving Grace claimed the gold medal in the six-year-old final at the FEI WBFSH Jumping World Breeding Championship for Young Horses in Lanaken last year.

It’s still fresh in my mind, it was so thrilling – Ethen Ahearne and ABC Saving Grace went up against 270 combinations, with 40 making it through to the final.

In the final reckoning, only 14 combinations managed to conquer course designer Eugène Mathy’s test to go forward to the jump-off, with Ahearne and ABC Saving Grace bringing the gold medal home in 36.74 secs to a roaring crowd of Irish supporters.

€2.9 million

In wider good news for breeders, Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) launched its breeding initiatives this week and has opened schemes for applications.

These schemes are funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) through national breeding services to the tune of almost €2.9 million, with additional production classes and events to be launched in the autumn.

The 2023 schemes will be issued in tranches with the first set of application deadlines in June. This will hopefully help breeders to get a quicker return on, for example, their x-rays, embryo transfer, environmental sampling or have the optimal period of time to have their horse produced and campaigned under the production schemes.

Through these schemes, DAFM and HSI have collaborated to ensure monetary backing for Irish breeders in all DAFM-approved studbooks and Irish-bred studbook registered horses.

Availing of this year’s initiatives and schemes will help equine breeders, and will support them in developing successful breeding programmes.

In turn, this backing should help to boost sales and increase potential for Irish horses to perform at the very highest level.