Irish Horses

None of the horses I've ridden have ever hunted, and I personally believe that flatwork is the foundation to everything and would never hunt a youngster.

I do think personality traits are inherent through breeding.

I only have to look at my Basset hound who has never been trained to follow a scent in his life to see that his totally tenacious (ie. pig stubborn) streak is from his genes!!
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I hope you find the right horse for you, but I personally adore Irish horses and would always choose that route for me now - despite always having thought my dream horse would be an exotic warmblood
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The price of a good Irish horse is high because they produce the best eventers in the world. If you look at every team in the Olympics or World Champs it is likely to have an Irish bred horse in it. (Apart from France who try to have as many Selle Francises (sp) as they can) That is the problem for the Irish riders, their good horses are being taken out of the country.

Also its not the place they come from which gives the horses their personalilty/ability/bravery but their breed. The braveness and senceability of IDs are what people want.
 
Surely this isnt a case of where the horse comes from its finding a horse that does what you want it to do in your price bracket. If you went to the Czech republic and found an irish horse (possible with all the shipping that goes on with horses) that would jump 1.40m happily and maybe more for a good price im sure you wouldnt discriminate just because it was irish?
 
Quote " the irihs jsut cant keep up with the foregin bred horses and now half the horses in ireland arent irish horses anyway as they are half breds with foreign stallions. In fact the foregin stalliosn that we r using over here are considered as third rate stallions compared with the ones standing abroad anyway." But WB's are PB's most WB's are mixed more often then not with English/Irish TB's. Sorry but though the view is that ISH are overpriced, so are a lot of them from Europe. You don't think they give their good horses away any cheaper then the Irish would? This has been thrashed out so many times. We can & do produce good horses here & in Ireland, but most of the time people are not willing to pay their worth. We do not produce as well & we do not get the subsidies that Europe get. There is nothing wrong in buying from Europe so long as we are not buying their cast offs. My daughters instructor's horse came from the Brightwell sales as a 3yr old, but I believe he was bred abroad. Dressage horses I do believe we fall behind, but not for SJ's or Eventers
I was put off by the fad of the 80's to own a WB no matter what it looked like!
 
I do agree definately both my horses have come from Ireland and both have been perfect for what I wanted. My first was a bomb-proof hunter just general family horse and fun-rides etc and I payed around £1000 for him 10yrs ago which.
Louis (my current) was also from Ireland and I don't remember exactly what we payed but it wasn't a lot at all,

I was recently looking into the prices of horse from Ireland and to buy either of the two above would be about tripple/quadruple the price these days
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. I do think prices have gone up ridiculously. If I was ever to buy another horse I would probably consider going abroad too as I just think you get more for your money.
 
Must be very lucky then because my Irish Sport horse - clover hill grandsire - is the best horse i've ever owned - genuine, honest, tries hard, fantastic jumper, scope and talent to go very very far.
I'm a big fan of the irish horse
ETS - Also if you look at the breeding of the horses going around weg, badders etc a large proportion of them are ISH
 
In response to elliefiz re hunting an irish horse - both me and my horse IDxTB (then 4yrs) had never been hunting and decided to go one day to prepare for XC. He looked after me like a pro - jumped everthing even the HUGE ditches, did not trip or stumble once and loved every minute of it!

I have ridden numerous warmbloods in the past and would not have done this with any of them as they just don't have the same temperaments. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule in all breeds, but as a rule, if you both want to come back safe and sound from a days hunting, I would take and Irish every time.
 
ok well the general consensus seems to be that irish horses are still as popular as ever mainly because they have had a fantastic reputation over the years and have proved themselves in most equestrian fields. Now im not debating this at all i started this post because i wanted other peoples opinion!!Most irish bred horses have pony blood in them somewhere along the line and i think this gives them a certain something (ie a cheekiness and a big heart yet a kind temper) that sets them apart from other horses and no one can dispute that most are a pleasure to be around and to ride. I would love to see the re-emergence of the Irish sport horse at top level competition,especially showjumping where they have had so much success in the past. I personally would love to buy a well bred irish horse with the ability to seriously compete but at the current market prices i cant afford to and therefore am forced to go abroad where i can get a horse with superior bloodlines for half the price of what id pay for one here. With the money i have to spend the only horses available to me in Ireland are of a standard far below the horses ive seen abroad.
 
Exactly. Its not that you dont like ISH's but for the money can get a horse with the abilities you want cheaper in europe, which isnt such a bad thing
 
Irish horses are some of the cream of sports horses - it's the lack of promotion (The IHB being particualarly guilty here) and the fact that the vast majority get sold out of the country at 3/4yo now due to thier recent popularity that leads to an impression that we don't produce as many top level animals anymore. Sort of being scuppered by our own success! Also, a much larger number of horses are bred on the continent which skews the figures- if you compared the 2 sides statistically with say PSG/Grade A/CCI*** horses per 100 bred you'd get similar figures....

Irish horses are some of the bravest & most honest horses I've sat on - and I've been on all sorts of yards ranging from hirelings to SJers to showing. They seem to have more common sense than a continentally bred animal.

Saying all that..I'm in the process of importing a British bred horse
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I think irish horses are brilliant, but had to go to england because either they're not advertised up here or they are all in england? Couldn't find one at all.
 
I rarely post on here but this time I felt strongly that I had to respond to your posts - I too am going to defend the ISH - while it is true that there are average horses being bred here there are also some seriously talented well bred youngsters out there well within your budget waiting to be brought on. The young horse you were considering in your previous post was €10,000 - this horse is advertised as suitable for an advanced rider to take further, he is also only rising 4. There are no photos of him jumping under saddle - only being loose schooled and ridden on the flat.
There are plenty of horses available here in Ireland that are within the same price range and even cheaper with the same lack of mileage that could go on to do what you claim to want to do. It is once they are out competing that the price skyrockets. As has been mentioned by previous posters you only have to look at the eventing and showjumping results from around the world to see the potential of the irish bred horse. I personally know several serious riders around your neck of the woods in north dublin that are frequently producing such horses to the 1.20/1.30m level for selling on and while I agree that by that stage they are huge prices they certainly didnt cost that at 4yrs of age. Im my experience Irish bred horses in general take time to mature and a lot of people simply arent willing to put in the work required (they have a living to make after all) but those that do are amply rewarded by their efforts.
Also it is my experience that there are plenty of cheaper horses outside the Dublin area waiting to be snapped up for the price of your average hunter that are considered to have 'failed' as showjumpers as they max out at 1.20/1.30m or have simply been pushed to much at too young an age.
So as I said if you are talented enough and are willing to put in the time doing the work correctly there are any number of Irish bred horses that would suit your needs.
 
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