HORSE Sport Ireland has announced the details of the autumn 2011 mare inspections for the Irish Sport Horse and Irish Draught Horse Studbooks. The inspections will take place throughout September.

Horse Sport Ireland held the new format Irish Sport Horse and Irish Draught Horse Mare Inspections for the first time in autumn 2010. There were over 650 mares inspected last autumn with a further 150 mares being inspected in the spring round.

Mares presented for inspection undergo a clinical veterinary examination on the day of the inspection before being assessed by a panel of three HSI inspectors. Mares are required to stand for an assessment of conformation before the handler is asked to walk and trot the mare in hand. The movement of the mare is then assessed loose in the arena. Conformation and movement are assessed using linear scoring and overall scores for Conformation and Movement are attributed to each mare.

Mare owners can have their mares athleticism assessed by means of a loose jumping demonstration. SELECT Irish Sport Horse mares that achieve a minimum score of 80 or above for their overall Athleticism are awarded a 1 Star merit, while CLASS 1 Irish Draught mares that achieve a minimum score of 70 or above for overall Athleticism are awarded a Bronze merit.

To date, 70% of Irish Sport Horses inspected were awarded SELECT status within the Irish Sport Horse Studbook. SELECT is the highest classification for mares within the Studbook and only SELECT mares are eligible to receive Star Ratings based on their own, their damline or their progeny’s performance in FEI disciplines (mainly show jumping, eventing and dressage).

So far, approx. 50% of Irish Draught Horse mares inspected met all the requirements and were awarded CLASS 1 status. This is the highest classification for mares within the Irish Draught Horse Studbook and only CLASS 1 mares are eligible to receive additional merits (Bronze, Silver and Gold) for their own performance in a range of disciplines, including showing.

Some of the benefits in having your mare inspected include the opportunity for entry into a higher section of the Irish Sport Horse or Irish Draught Horse Studbook. The progeny of SELECT and CLASS 1 mares will be tracked with the potential to receive further merits and star ratings, which will add value to future progeny. Owners will be sent linear score profiles of their mare by post following inspection.

Details of the dates, venues and application forms are available on www.horsesportireland.ie/breeding The closing date for applications is Monday 18th July 2011.

Applicants should note that these venues and dates are dependent on sufficient entries and as such are provisional and may be subject to change.

For further information please contact Antonette Doran or Lorraine Mc Mahon on 045 854508/517 or email adoran@horsesportireland.ie