Irish Sport Horse Young Breeders Team 2007

The National German Young Breeders Competition took place last weekend, from the 6th to the 8th of July in Dillenburg, Germany. Fifteen Studbooks took part in the competition, which for the first year took on an international dimension, with teams from the Irish Sport Horse Studbook and the Danish Warmblood Studbook taking part.

Each of the fifteen Studbooks entered a senior team consisting of three young breeders aged between 19 and 25 years of age and a junior team consisting of three young breeders aged between 14 and 18 years of age. Each of the competitors completed a theory test, presented a horse in hand, judged the gaits and jumping ability of loose horses and ranked three mares on their conformation.

The Irish Sport Horse Young Breeders Team were selected following the Irish Horse Board Young Breeders Competition in 2006 and attended a number of training days before travelling to Germany to compete. The senior ISH team consisted of Aine Geoghegan, Jessica Tanner and Janine Mulgrew, while Dairine O’Connor, Charlotte Younghusband and David Bourke represented the Irish Sport Horse Studbook in the junior competition. In addition to funding the travel costs of the team the IHB also provided funding for a number of young breeders that attended the IHB Young Breeder training days to attend the competition as supports. These included Patrick Hester, Amanda Fahy, Goda Faherty and Clare Carey. Mr. Philip Scott, team trainer, was also on-hand to assist the ISH team throughout the competition.

The Irish Sport Horse team managed to pick up a number of impressive placings throughout the competition, with Aine Geoghegan finishing in the top ten in the senior section for judging loose horses on their movement and jumping ability and Dairine O’Connor finishing in the top ten in the junior section for both the judging of mares on their conformation and judging loose horses on their movement and jumping ability.

The ISH Young Breeder team were great ambassadors for the Irish Sport Horse Studbook. They gained valuable experience in judging horses and availed of the opportunity to meet with young breeders from various studbooks in Germany and Denmark. Following the competition the ISH Young Breeder Team visited a number of stud farms, including a showjumping yard, a sales yard and a dressage yard to gain an insight into sport horse industry in Germany.

The Irish Horse Board would like to thank all of the young breeders who represented the ISH Studbook for their participation. The IHB would also like to thank Dubarry for their generous sponsorship of the team uniforms. The IHB are indebted to Teagasc for their assistance with the competition and to Philip Scott, team trainer.

The IHB are running another Young Breeders competition, in association with Teagasc, on the 31st of July 2007 in Gurteen College, Roscrea, Co. Tipperary. This competition will be used to select the teams travelling to Holland next year to represent the Irish Sport Horse Studbook at the WBFSH Young Breeders Competition 2008. For further details please contact Ms. Emma Ponsonby on (01) 5053584 or visit www.irishsporthorse.com