Up by almost 50% on previous years, there has been a very healthy increase rise in entries for this week’s 13th running of Horse Sport Ireland’s (HSI) stallion inspections at Cavan Equestrian Centre.

So much so, they ran over two full days, finishing late on the evening of Thursday 24 March.

We will have an update report on the overall results on colts that meet the requirements in next week’s column.

When this new inspection process began in 2010, and for the following session in 2011, the entries stood at 93 and 108 respectively.

But as breeders and owners began to get a feel for just how strict and transparent the judging was going to be, there came a sudden drop to 70 in 2012 and then to 47 in 2013.

Numbers fell steadily since then to settle at around the 30-mark over the past three sessions.

As a sign that both the quality of our youngstock is improving and that breeders retain confidence in the inspection process numbers have climbed once more to 43 for the two-day session in 2022.

The sport horse entries have doubled from 10 in 2020 to 20 this time. Happily, of those, 13 are home-bred while a further seven are in the foreign-bred section.

The Irish Draught entry, which has stayed mostly steady down the years, has increased from 17 in 2020 to 22 this time. One sports pony is also being inspected.

Among the sport horse cohort, seven of those tested for phase 1 on Wednesday are also listed for the phase 2 test over fences with Damien Griffin as visiting rider.

Educational process

Having being present for 19 of these inspections over the years I have been impressed by the number of breeders who have turned out just to watch prospective candidates being judged for conformation, movement and athleticism.

A maximum of 100 points could be awarded for each of these tests. On average, about 70 has to be scored in order for the judges to announce that the horse “has reached the inspection requirements”.

For anyone attending it really is an educational experience as to the type of young stallion that is required for the current sport horse needs.

There can be no doubt that any colt that positively passes through this system does indeed increase in value. As one dealer recently told me: “It is a good test and can have a positive impact on the sale of horses going to the continent, the UK or the US.”

I hope that more breeders attend to gain the benefit of the educational experience afforded by paying a visit to Cavan Equestrian.