Irish Sports Horse - opinions

Irish sport horse could be anything really over about 15hh and middleweight. Its no guarantee of breed. I guess the traditional type is IDxTB. I lived in Northern Ireland and bought a horse while I was there. He was unregistered and had no passport. When the vet came to do a passport for him he recorded him as an Irish Sport Horse. I actually think he is a Standardbred or cross because he paces.
I have also seen horses advertised and sold as Irish Sport Horses which are blatantly full TB.
 
alexedwards said:
Irish sport horse could be anything really over about 15hh and middleweight. Its no guarantee of breed. I guess the traditional type is IDxTB. I lived in Northern Ireland and bought a horse while I was there. He was unregistered and had no passport. When the vet came to do a passport for him he recorded him as an Irish Sport Horse. I actually think he is a Standardbred or cross because he paces.
I have also seen horses advertised and sold as Irish Sport Horses which are blatantly full TB.
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I agree with you in terms of what shows up under the banner of ISH but I thought technically they had to have an ID basis? Same as a spanish sport horse is PRE based. Sortof a homemade warmblood.
 
alexedwards said:
Irish sport horse could be anything really over about 15hh and middleweight. Its no guarantee of breed. I guess the traditional type is IDxTB.
I have also seen horses advertised and sold as Irish Sport Horses which are blatantly full TB.
Click to expand...

I have one from Ireland who is passported as an ISH, sire is TB, Dam no idea on breeding! possibly a moose or giant donk going by the size of her ears :)
 
It's a cross bred, so there's not one firm opinion to a have. It depends of the elements of the cross, you can get traits from either side, temperament can a come from anywhere etc. It seems that there are a lot of horses called ISH that are of unknown breeding and origin, but it's a fashionable tag so here you go, from being of unknown breeding it's now an ISH.

If you want a guaranteed proportion of Irish Draught blood you want an IDSH (irish draught sport horse) which has a minimum level of Verified ID breeding.
 
Mine is green passported, Irish Sport, but his sire is Hermes De Reve, which is a Selle Francais. Mother is Irish sport..... and at least she has a pure ID in her parentage.

He was born in Ireland.....
 
Our mare is green passported, was born in Ireland, sire was TB jumping stallion French Buffet, dam was ISH with Clover Hill blood lines, she looks very much like a very tall TB, skinny, 17.hh and TB skin, does a decent dressage test and has a scopy jump, very sweet temp
 
If you are talking about a good IDxTB cross with good lines, I think they are a lovely type of horse, the best in my opinion. They are, generally speaking, nice characters, honest horses, almost pony like in sense, with enough scope generally to do local level stuff and lower levels of affiliated, many will go further. Often good doers, and need to be weight watchers!

Then there are ISH that have some other quality breeds thrown in too. I have one with 1/4 WB, who is still lovely. Finally you get the ISH that are a mixture of just about anything!
 
I had a idxtb on loan, she wasn't a registered sports horse but she was an amazing mare, confidence giver but fun at the same time! she was lovely!

my friend had a sports horse, he was id x tb x connie and he injured himself on the way over from Ireland so never made it passed 6, cost her loads of money trying to get him sound but he never managed more than about 6 months sounds! he would have been a lovely horse had that injury not happened! I understand he was very easy to back! I hacked him out at 4 and it wasn't like riding a youngster!

I would consider one again, if I ever needed another horse, which hopefully I wont! I currently have 2 connie x tbs!
 
ISH is no different from any other Sport Horse registry. It's just a means for a horse, often without pedigree and limited lineage, to belong to a registry. And that's about it. Unlike breed societies or WB societies, where pedigree is full and complete and breeding is kept to standard, the ISH is not focused on these things.
 
My sister and I have an ISH each - we know all of their breeding; Jazz (mine) is 5/8 TB and 3/8 ID (both parents crossbreeds) and Harley (my sister's) is by an ID stallion out of a TB mare.

They are both gentle, kind, exceptionally genuine and good-natured horses. Jazz can be a bit sharp at times but he's so sweet and so willing I can forgive him that! They are completely different shapes though - Jazz is very compact and fine featured whereas Harley is massive in all directions and has a gorgeous big Roman nose :)

Be warned though ... they don't stop growing until they're about 9! We got Harley as a 16.2hh 7yo, he's now 9 and just over 17hh; Jazz was just over 16hh as a 6yo when I bought him last year and is now approaching 16.2hh!
 
I have bred an Irish sports, or IDSH if we are being super fussy!
Proven parentage on both sides so please don't discard Irish sports horses as "anything"

Full class 1 sire, top performance ID stallion in uk, and my rather "special" TB mare have got me a super duper 3yo that I can't wait to get on!

Half sister the lovely adorable Alice as well!
 
my daughters mare was a registered ISH, she was cob cross tb, coloured (with some feather) red and white and stood at 14.3hh with a life height cert of 14.2hh. amazing kind mare and she evented up 4ft with previous owner and 3.3ft with my daughter.
ISH to my mind is type not breeding and is applied to anything these days as people seem to like the label
 
dianchi said:
I have bred an Irish sports, or IDSH if we are being super fussy!
Proven parentage on both sides so please don't discard Irish sports horses as "anything"

Full class 1 sire, top performance ID stallion in uk, and my rather "special" TB mare have got me a super duper 3yo that I can't wait to get on!

Half sister the lovely adorable Alice as well!
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But ISH can be anything, I'm afraid. Yours is an IDSH and making the distinction is not being super fussy at all.
 
Cruising offspring are ISH and are known to be tricky types but also of course, world class competition horses.

You stand a good chance of a nice temperament with ID in the pedigree.
 
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