THE Irish Draught Horse Breeders’ Association Laois Branch Show took place last Saturday, July 6th, in the beautiful setting of Stradbally Hall at the kind invitation of the Cosby family.

The show was once again blessed with a fine day, apart from a few heavy showers, and Irish Draught enthusiasts returned in large numbers to spectate.

The feature class of the day was the Breeders’ Championship, a combination class for Class 1 or 2 Irish Draught mares and foals, sponsored by Horse Sport Ireland and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine under National Breeding Services Breeding Grant. The ridden ring also featured classes for Traditional Irish Horses and the TIHA presented special prizes to the winners of these classes.

Aidan Flanagan's Ahalative Goldsmith, by Carrickcottage Star was the Champion Youngstock winner at the IDHBA Laois Branch Show 2024 \ John O'Carroll

In-hand ring

In the in-hand ring, the day began with three youngstock classes, with quality youngsters professionally presented to the judges, Christy Tully and Alex Moores. The Champion coming from this section was Aidan Flanagan’s Ahalative Goldsmith, by Carrickcottage Star. This three-year-old chestnut filly was bred by John Milligan out of the Knockillaree Glenlara dam Ahalative Rose. The reserve Champion was Monessa Scott Keogh’s two-year-old filly Jacks Bonnie, by Clogheen Captain Jack out of Bonnie Noreen (Rebel Mountain). This filly also won at Laois last year as a yearling, when shown by her breeder Terry Keogh.

The numbers in the mare and foal classes were down compared to recent years, but there were some lovely quality Irish Draught mares on show. Padraig Bohan’s Gortfadda Heigh Ho stood top of the line in the Mare with foal at foot class, as did her colt foal by Inisfree The Iron Cross. This well-known 16-year-old mare is by Heigh Ho Dubh out of Glann Ivy (Uibh Fhaili) and was bred by Kay Blackwell.

This combination also went Champion Mare and Foal, with James Heery’s six-year-old mare Offaly Pride standing Reserve Champion Mare.

Heery’s six-year-old mare is by Offaly Clover out of the Donovan-sired Ballindrimna Lady. Her filly foal by Touch Of The Emperor stood top of the line in the filly foal class. The part-bred foal class was won by Laois Chairman David Cosby’s colt foal by Gibeon out of Ballycreen Minerva (Rebel Mountain).

Laois Branch class

The class for Laois Branch members is also a fiercely contested one and this year it was won by Kevin Brennan’s Windgap Lass by Windgap Reliance out of Woodland Folly (Woodland Boy), bred by Keith Mooney. The class for Barren or Stinted Mares was won by Patrick Hayes’ Misty Grey Lady, a five-year-old mare by Killountain Cross out of Gentle Shauna (Gentle Diamond) bred by Sean Scannell.

The feature class in the in-hand ring was the Breeders’ Championship with a prize fund of €800, sponsored by Horse Sport Ireland and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine under National Breeding Services Breeding Grant.

This class was for Class 1 or Class 2 Irish Draught mares with a pure-bred foal at foot and was judged with 40% of the marks for the mare and 60% of the marks for the foal. Judges Glen Knipe and Rosie Wentges came over from the ridden ring to join Christy Tully and Alex Moores and the four judges had to score each combination independently. This combination class was won by James Heery’s Offaly Pride and her Touch of The Emperor filly.

Winner of the IDHBA Laois Branch Show 2024 Breeders Championship was James Heery's six-year-old mare Offaly Pride, by Offaly Clover out of Ballindrimna Lady by Donovan, with her filly foal by Touch of the Emperor. James also took the prize for breeder of the winning mare \ John O'Carroll

The final decision to be made in this ring was for the Supreme in-hand Champion of the Show, with the sash eventually going to Padraig Bohan’s Gortfadda Heigh Ho, with Aidan Flanagan’s Ahalative Goldsmith in reserve.

Over in ring two, judges Rosie Wentges and Glen Knipe had six classes to assess. As in 2023, the opening class for four-year-old and older in-hand geldings was won by Louise Kavanagh’s Fred Showtime, an 11-year-old grey gelding by Fintan Himself, out of Diamond Anne by Sir Rivie, who was bred by Donal Reilly. Louise and Fred Showtime are faithful supporters of the show, having attended every year since their partnership began in 2018.

Ridden

The Ridden Irish Draught four and five-year old class was won by Órlaith Stokes’ Highland Farmer, a brown five-year-old gelding by Farmhill Highlander out of the WRS Sun Rich dam Black Misty Lady, bred by Owen Hallinan.

The ridden class for Irish Draught six-year-olds and older was won by Judith Long’s Rebel Vision, a six-year-old grey gelding by Darragh Moylough Vision out of Bailies Rebel (Huntingfield Rebel), who was bred by Sheila McElwine. This combination won the younger class at the show in 2023.

The ridden class for Irish Draught six-year-olds and older was won by Judith Long's Rebel Vision, who was also Reserve Champion Ridden Draught at the IDHBA Laois Branch Show 2024 \ John O'Carroll

The Irish Draught Working Hunter class was won by the Lindsay Grahams- ridden SHMA Miss Windgap, a five-year-old mare by Eponastables Uibh Fhaili out of SHMA Windgap (Windgap Blue). This mare is owned and was bred by well-known breeder Sharon Mannion and is currently show jumping up to 1.10m.

Champion TIH

The Champion Traditional Irish Horse came from the TIH Working Hunter class, in the form of Anne Burns’ Cresties Matilda, an eight-year-old mare by the Irish Draught sire Castle Crest out of Marbridge Holly (Laughtons Flight), bred by Emily Corrigan. The Reserve Champion Traditional Irish Horse was the winner of the Ridden TIH class Adrina Conlon’s Heigh Ho Carrabawn, a five-year-old gelding by Young Carrabawn out of Countess Katy (Heigh Ho Silver), bred by Catherine and Colman Kerans.

The Champion Traditional Irish Horse at the IDHBA Laois Branch Show 2024 was Anne Burns's Cresties Matilda, an eight-year-old mare by the Performance Irish Draught sire Castle Crest \ John O'Carroll

The final challenge of the day for the judges was to pick the Ridden Irish Draught Champion and their choice for 2024 was Órlaith Stokes’ Highland Farmer, with Judith Long’s Rebel Vision in reserve. The IDHBA Laois Branch expressed their thanks to all of their many sponsors, volunteers, competitors and judges for contributing to a fantastic 2024 show.