Ireland’s top sport horse breeders have abandoned the old ways in favour of breeding for performance. This fact is clearly evident in the start lists of this year’s Horse Sport Ireland’s (HSI) foal championship.

This annual event was due to take place at Warrington Equestrian Centre in Kilkenny on 26 October, but due to the Government’s Level 5 COVID-19 restrictions it has now been postponed until next month. Hopefully in a pre–Christmas showing, 26 qualified finalists in the four categories of ponies, eventers, show jumpers and traditional-breds will highlight a performance revolution that is steadily gaining pace.

Going continental

Looking at the entries for the show jumping section, the shift to continental performance bloodlines is most evident in the five foals on this list. Not only in the chosen sires, but also in their dam lines where these foals demonstrate that after a long delay, Ireland is now in the mainstream of world sport horse breeding.

While I for one would still harbour lingering nostalgia for the way it used to be in this sport, realism demands that only the most focused bloodlines will serve the needs of modern show jumping. Our top breeders have learned this tough lesson and are running with it.

Among the sires of the five qualified foals in this category we have the Holsteiner Casal La Silla that was jumped in top 1.60m competition by Swedish rider Rolf-Goran Bengtsson. Then there is Quality Time who traces lineage back to the great Jalisco B. This Dutch-registered sire was ridden to wins by both Charlie Jacobs of the US and The Netherlands’ Jeroen Dubbeldam. He now stands in Ireland at the Hughes Horse Stud in Kilkenny.

Olympic blood

The well-known OBOS Quality that stands with the Kennedy family in Kerry also has a filly qualified. He is by Quick Star, who also sired Olympic champion Big Star.

Kylemore Stud’s Dutch-bred Tyson by Numero Uno is another with a filly qualified. He was first reserve on the Dutch team for the London Olympics.

The fifth qualified colt foal is by the Belgian sire Tangelo Van de Zuuthoeve who was ridden by Rolf Brill of the Netherlands and through Narcos traces back to Cor de la Bryere. The dam sires of this group are also performance based and include, Touchdown, Puissance, Canturano and Orlando, who is descended from the great international Darco.

So there it is, five Irish-bred foals that represent a host of others all headed in the direction of performance. None of their sires came cheap and one can only hope that the breeders are well rewarded for their choice.