To inspect or not to inspect sport horse stallions – that is the dilemma that Horse Sport Ireland has wrestled with ever since its founding back in 2008.

Not to inspect means denying owners of good young colts the opportunity to rearn a badge of approval.

Inspect and they run the risk of continued decline in entries due to current difficulties of standing home-bred sport horse sires in Ireland.

As one owner pointed out to me recently: “Faced with the tsunami of imported semen from abroad, it is almost impossible for an approved stallion to make a name for himself.”

Difficulties

Yet, despite all of the difficulties, inspect we must!

The survival of the now 10-year-old project was severely tested a couple of years back when the Irish Horse Board voted to suspend inspections. However, the degree of opposition to that decision from breeders resulted in a u-turn and the process was restored.

However, it has to be said that a good deal of the support for the programme came from the Irish Draught sector which caters for its own dedicated home bred market.

The main argument for sport horse stallion inspections lies in the hope that we can once again breed and produce an Irish sport horse sire that can be ridden by an Irish rider to the very top level of international show jumping.

His coverings by AI could then compete on the world market. We need another Cruising or Flex.

Decline

When the current series of inspections began back in 2010, there was a burst of enthusiasm from the sport horse sector as 36 animlas were presented before the judges at Cavan Equestrian Centre.

That number grew to 46 the following year, but has steadily declined ever since. Last year it stood at 18 and according to the most recent figures from Horse Sport Ireland just 10 sport horse colts have been put forward for this year’s session. The Irish Draught figure has held steady at around 20 per year.

Contrast this with the Dutch KWPN approval system which caters for a breeding programme that produces twice as many foals as we do; 10,000 to our 5,000.

They begin by inspecting 900 three-year-old colts. That number is cut to 90 in the second round and then about 20 achieve preliminary approval status.

So we have a mountain to climb!

It is worth coming along to Cavan on 10 March to see the 2020 inspections. Though the entry is small, I guarantee there will be some very interesting young colts on show.