BREED the best to the best and hope for the best; does the old adage still hold true?

Obviously, all breed improvement is based on this premise.

National breeding programmes and reputable studbooks endeavour to identify the group of horses that have traits that are most closely aligned to their breeding goal from the overall population.

Through veterinary examination, inspections and performance data, they classify those horses most suitable to achieve the breeding goal and contribute to overall breed improvement. These horses are advised to breeders through their classification as Approved/Class 1 horses in stallion books, online database and publications.

Top breeders use the same process, albeit on an individual mare and stallion basis. Breeders should have a clear breeding goal for each mare. By analysing all the tools available: horse classification, performance data, linear profiles for conformation and movement traits, Estimated Breeding Values, performance records and most importantly, the strike rate of potential of the stallion’s successful progeny for the chosen breeding goal, breeders can make the best decision. All the tools and desktop data available can provide a shortlist of stallions that may be appropriate for each mare. However, the horses always need to be viewed in the flesh prior to making the final decision, this ensures very informed breeding decisions can be made. The best resulting choices use all the tools available.

How can each of us breeders tip the scales in our favour to produce successful offspring each year?

Having a clear breeding goal and using a sound horse (mare and stallion) with a strong pedigree and performance credentials that complements your own mare.

And blood? What is blood and how important is it?

Horse Sport Ireland’s overall breeding objective is to: “To breed and produce performance horses in Ireland that are sound, athletic with good paces and a suitable temperament which are capable of winning at the highest international level in FEI disciplines.” Within this breeding objective, the two breeding directions of eventing and show jumping are supported.

Many of the initiatives rolled out by Horse Sport Ireland for all DAFM studbook registered horses are in support of this breeding objective.

In 2019, Horse Sport Ireland will once again support the Embryo Transfer Scheme for high performance mares, or those younger mares that come from very strong families. The objective is to maximise the genetic gain of these lines in Ireland, to capitalise on these mares before becoming too old or with younger mares prior to being sold abroad.

The three and four-year-old autumn loose jumping assessment days for fillies will also be supported to enable the owners get a very cost effective objective assessment of their young mares prior to breeding, and gain specific advice from experts in the industry, regarding their breeding decisions for these mares.

Based on trends analysed over the past 12 months, new initiatives have also been approved by the Horse Sport Ireland board for 2019.

Figure 1 shows a significant decline in the mean Thoroughbred (TB) percentage in the Irish foal crop over the past 10 years and a particularly sharp decline in the last five years.

In the discipline of Eventing, where the Irish Sport Horse Studbook has won the World studbook rankings for 23 of the last 25 years, this is a very worrying trend.

At the HSI eventing breeding conference in December 2018, Padraig McCarthy and Chris Bartle both emphasised the need for horses with 75+% thoroughbred blood for riders to successfully produce them to a top five-star event horse. These blood horses can withstand the training required and subsequently complete the rigours of the five-star event much better than horses with less Thoroughbred blood.

Michael Jung was in Ireland recently and he too was looking for horses with considerable blood, and he claimed that they are increasingly difficult to source in Europe. So, there is a significant market opportunity for Irish breeders.

From a more detailed analysis of the data, it is clear that we are producing very few foals (5%) with more than 75% Thoroughbred blood over the past five years. Therefore, to encourage the use of more TB mares and stallions, Horse Sport Ireland is offering a grant of €300 to breeders who choose to breed such foals born in 2020. If a breeder breeds a DAFM approved studbook inspected TB mare, or a sport horse mare to an Approved TB stallion and produces a foal with a Thoroughbred percentage of 70% or more, on registration of that foal in a DAFM studbook, they will be eligible for the grant in 2020.

INSPECTIONS

In order to promote and preserve Ireland’s rare Irish Draught bloodlines and the Traditional Irish Horse bred Irish Sport Horse Stallions, Horse Sport Ireland has also implemented a scheme to freeze the semen from a selected number of these horses in 2019. This follows the completion of the report entitled Genetics of the Irish Draught Horse Stud Book of Origin, which was prepared by Katherine Brady, Consulting Quantitative Geneticist, in conjunction with Deirdre Harty, Data Analytics Manager.

The report identifies the genetic diversity information for Irish Draught stallions of concern currently breeding and/or included in the 2018 stallion book.

Also following Genetic research carried out by Plusvital Ltd and HSI’s breeding team, in association with the Traditional Irish Horse Association, to evaluate the ancestral genetic contributions to various cohorts of the ISH, defined on the basis of pedigree. The study found that the ISH (TIH) is genetically distinct from the European Warmblood populations. The research concluded that considering its unique position within the sport horse world, with traits for elite eventing abilities and versatility, the TIH should be conserved and the genetic legacy of the traditional Irish sport horse protected. In France, the Selle Francais Original has a similar preservation and development programme. The details of their scheme was outlined by French vet and WBFSH Board member Paul Hubert at the 2018 H.S.I. Breeding Conference.

To assist the retention and development of a relevant TIH population, H.S.I. has ring-fenced a percentage of the Embryo Transfer scheme to encourage the production of TIF foals out of proven performance TIH/TB mares and by Approved TIH stallions that are registered in a DAFM studbook in 2020.

It is ONLY us the breeders, that can produce the next Irish-bred championship horses, let’s use all the tools available to help us do so.