What are your impressions of the horse scene in Ireland?

Molasses

Molasses

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What do you think of Equestrian Ireland?
First thoughts that spring to mind?:)

Do you think of mad cap hunting or wheeling and dealing? Or do you think everyone has a piebald in their backgarden and every horse is a charity case? Or do you picture the same as UK but different. Just wondering as sometimes sweeping statements are applied to Ireland on horse forums and interested to peoples actual impressions. Do you base your thoughts and impressions on a once off visit or what someone has told you or other?

Help me convince some Irish mates that not everyone over here has a low opinion or no clue at all;)
 
Sold a pony to Ireland and his kind new owners keep me informed of his adventures. He looks very well cared for so i know there are people who look after their horses well. But as people are the same the world over, I would expect to meet the same mixed bag as we find here.
 
What I think of is this; young horses taken hunting at 3 or 4 years old. Backed by nagsmen, usually taught manners. Generally good all round sorts of horses raised by no-nonsense, non-pandering folks.
 
Spring Feather said:
What I think of is this; young horses taken hunting at 3 or 4 years old. Backed by nagsmen, usually taught manners. Generally good all round sorts of horses raised by no-nonsense, non-pandering folks.
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oooh interesting
have you been to Ireland, just out of interest?
 
Im from ireland so cant really comment! But when i first started reading this forum it was like a totally diffierent world!

Getting saddles fitted for each horse you have. I have had the same saddle for nearly 8years and its been on everything from a 14.2hh to a 18hh hunter with no problems!

Never heard of riding horses barefoot before coming here.

Ive never really considered the idea of owning one horse for life the longest ive own a horse for is about 4yrs before it being sold on.

Owning a horse and riding a horse yourself but having it on livery, 99% of people i know have there horses at home. I like the sound of livery tho, being able to ride out with friends all the time ect

so i do think we are different in some ways anyway. Horses in ireland most of the time are there to do a job and not really kept as pets as such i dont think!
 
As someone who owns and has owned ,ridden, bought,sold, and hunted horses in both countries, you are making ridiculous statements! Its like saying over in Ireland we all wear green clothes and shamrocks and in England you all dress like Beefeaters!!!
Both countries have the poor, scrawny neglected horses, ill-bred horses, dumped horses etc- but they are in the minority. Most horses in both countries are well bred and well looked after, in Ireland there maybe isn't so much 'happy hacking' as there are no bridleways, very little off-road riding and VERY busy roads. Most shows are fairly large, and there are very few unaffiliated shows.
Both countries have pony clubs, show jumping in Ireland is very much geared to the bringing on of young horses, no haring around an 80cms course against the clock, only 1.10m and above go against the clock.
There is more breeding for profit in Ireland, and horses are classed as agricultural animals rather than leisure. But gone are the days when every farmer had a mare to breed from- nowadays there are more sport horse studs.
 
Spent many a happy day in the horse scene in Ireland so a peaceful and gentle country very friendly and kind with a lot of horse sense.
The media image cobs in lifts and tethered in housing estates boys with vicious hands and galloping about the roads I think some of the telly and newspaper reports are badly skewed
I love Ireland and the vast majority of people I have met have been absolutely wonderful and caring and kind to their animals
 
Molasses said:
oooh interesting
have you been to Ireland, just out of interest?
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No it's one country I've never been to, but I did have a few Connemara x TBs shipped over from Ireland many many moons ago, and all of them were absolutely fabulous ponies/horses! Very competent, careful, and mannerly animals. So that's where I got my impression from :smile3:
 
pixy said:
Im from ireland so cant really comment! But when i first started reading this forum it was like a totally diffierent world!

Getting saddles fitted for each horse you have. I have had the same saddle for nearly 8years and its been on everything from a 14.2hh to a 18hh hunter with no problems!

Never heard of riding horses barefoot before coming here.

Ive never really considered the idea of owning one horse for life the longest ive own a horse for is about 4yrs before it being sold on.

Owning a horse and riding a horse yourself but having it on livery, 99% of people i know have there horses at home. I like the sound of livery tho, being able to ride out with friends all the time ect

so i do think we are different in some ways anyway. Horses in ireland most of the time are there to do a job and not really kept as pets as such i dont think!
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LOL I am in Ireland and would have said the exact opposite!!!
Maybe it depends on where in Ireland you are?

For some perspective:
I would have said approximately 70% of owners have their horses on Full livery.
Saddles are one of the most popular topics of conversation and there are plenty of very nice ones around :)
The kids are blinged to the very last with the very very best of everything :D Spooks rules in SJI anyway.

Personally:
Ponies as a kid
Pony Club
Hunted
Affiliated Showjumping/eventing
We have a family run livery yard (Full only) and stud (Eventers/Jumpers)
Our liveries are meticulous with the care of their horses.
They all participate is RC and other affiliated competitions (SJ/Eventing/Dressage/Showing)
We run regular clinics here across the board with top international competitor/trainers - Showing/Showjumping/SJ/Dressage/XC
Clinics are always PACKED!! People are BIG into training.

There are 3 Affiliated showjumping venues within 30 minutes, with shows running every week.
There are normal 2 if not 3 Affiliated events on every week from March. Currently every region is running Combined training.
Dressage Ireland have shows scheduled pretty much every weekend.
RC is very active and RC leagues are hugely popular
Hunting is of course always very popular but it is not probably as popular as people think. Only one from our yard hunts. Of the Hunting fraternity I would say 50% hunt only and the other cross over to other disciplines when the season has ended.

Mostly people who have horses here are hard working and obsessed with their hobby and invest in it heavily.
Of course their are people who will mistreat/neglect horses. Everyone is cognisant of this but it is a minority like any other country.

All in all I think both Ireland and England are pretty similar although I am hugely jealous of the hacking available in England and am maddened that off-road is not more broadly available here.
 
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pixy said:
Im from ireland so cant really comment! But when i first started reading this forum it was like a totally diffierent world!

Getting saddles fitted for each horse you have. I have had the same saddle for nearly 8years and its been on everything from a 14.2hh to a 18hh hunter with no problems!

Never heard of riding horses barefoot before coming here.

Ive never really considered the idea of owning one horse for life the longest ive own a horse for is about 4yrs before it being sold on.

Owning a horse and riding a horse yourself but having it on livery, 99% of people i know have there horses at home. I like the sound of livery tho, being able to ride out with friends all the time ect

so i do think we are different in some ways anyway. Horses in ireland most of the time are there to do a job and not really kept as pets as such i dont think!
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I probably contradict all of this too :)

I'm Irish and still live here. Have my first horse coming on 13 years now and just bought my 2nd last year who I hope to have for many years to come. Both had their saddles fitted :D I do of course have a super comfy Berney that I would use on a lot of horses but when I bought the young horse he got his own saddle.

I am also on full livery as are most of the people I know. Maybe that is more to do with the fact that I live near the city but having a horse at home would not be an option for me. I sometimes wish it was but full livery it is - that being said I am up to him every day etc.

The one thing I seem to find different between the two countries are the livery options. Wow over in England you guys have some options!!! So many different types available to you. Full livery where someone would ride and groom my horse would be so alien to a lot of my friends over here. So while I am on what we consider Full livery here - to you guys it would probably be half - horse is mucked out fed, turned out etc - but I do all the riding, exercising etc.
 
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pixy said:
Im from ireland so cant really comment! But when i first started reading this forum it was like a totally diffierent world!

Getting saddles fitted for each horse you have. I have had the same saddle for nearly 8years and its been on everything from a 14.2hh to a 18hh hunter with no problems!

Never heard of riding horses barefoot before coming here.

Ive never really considered the idea of owning one horse for life the longest ive own a horse for is about 4yrs before it being sold on.

Owning a horse and riding a horse yourself but having it on livery, 99% of people i know have there horses at home. I like the sound of livery tho, being able to ride out with friends all the time ect

so i do think we are different in some ways anyway. Horses in ireland most of the time are there to do a job and not really kept as pets as such i dont think!
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I must say I agree a lot more with Lark and Stormfox's posts than this one.
I am another person who came up through pony club, then competed a lot in showing and dressage and on Young rider teams travelling over to Addington etc.

I've also worked as a dressage rider and got all my exams and passed my BHSAI in the UK, so I think I have a pretty good overview of both countries and it's probably no secret :D that I get very angry when I see posts on this board by people describing their horses as being headshy and nervous or neglected because they come from Ireland.

It also tends to be a trend that these same vocal people are one horse amateurs who have bought a hairy coloured cob and it usually has come from a UK dealer, NOT direct from Ireland, so the abuse (if there ever was any) might not have happened in Ireland at all. These same people might not ever have even been to Ireland.

In fact some time ago I saw posts by one supposedly very respected person on here talking critically about a yard they visited in Ireland.
What they didn't know is that the same thread was being read by someone else who knew both the poster and the yard they were talking about.. Lets just say that the poster's own yard would have been an eye-opener to many people on here and the description of the yard in Ireland was highly inaccurate and one sided.
This is what I find so frustrating - in order to continue this myth and of course to pretend that they are such good horse producers that they can buy a half wild, half starved thing from Ireland and then turn it around and into a winning horse, they basically tell lies and it's Ireland that is the scapegoat. And the eegits who buy the horses believe them because it makes for a much better story!!

There is a world of difference between those who deal in cheap horses and those who deal in proper competition horses, especially in Ireland. Price is usually a huge part (a lot of people can't afford the proper Irish competition horses and for good reason - they're WORLD CLASS) and if you go to a dealer who only sells these types of cheap horses, then you have to appreciate that someone, somewhere is cutting corners and it's not necessarily the Irish.
 
Ops maybe im totally off the mark then but thats just how it is around us. Im in the west not close to any big cities so maybe thats why.
Ps im not some yuppy from the country my dad has competed internationally in sj to nations cup level and runs a succesful livery yard, but people have their horses stabled there for my dad to ride not to ride them selves!
 
pixy said:
Ps im not some yuppy from the country my dad has competed internationally in sj to nations cup level and runs a succesful livery yard, but people have their horses stabled there for my dad to ride not to ride them selves!
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Funny you should mention that actually as with my above post in regards to the differences in "Full" livery the only real time I have heard of people not riding their own horses was if they were in for schooling :) but it usually would not be such a long term thing a such.
 
The impression I get is that the Irish as a nation are more horsey than the British - more likely to go to horsey events or gamble on racing and I'd like to think that the roads were safer to ride on.

I think of Ireland as somewhere where you could buy a very nice horse but you'd need contacts or a large budget to get a really good one. There's certainly an impression that Irish horses are produced more slowly and steadily than those on the continent - the contrast between French and Irish chasers for example in terms of how young they are when they appear on the track.

At the other end of the horse ownership spectrum, I doubt there's more cruelty in Ireland. Possibly more horses living in undesirable settings (I saw an article about horses living on council estates in Dublin once) but not being treated any worse than many horses are here.
 
equi said:
Im from ireland and i have a low opinion of us! I see far too many horses that deserve so much better.
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That's undisputed Equi, but I don't necessarily believe that it is worse in Ireland than in the UK for example... Just look at Appleby Fair!! Or the recent report of the poor pony dumped in a rubbish bag - or the pony attacked in its stable with cigarettes and staples.. Similarly the minatures that were attacked by an arsonist in Australia..
Do you believe that every horse that comes from Ireland is beaten, or headshy or because it comes from Ireland it must have been rushed?
Do you compete? Do you go to e.g. Eventing Ireland competitions, where the vast majority of horses are wearing tack that costs more than a lot of people would earn in two or three or more months?
 
equi said:
Im from ireland and i have a low opinion of us! I see far too many horses that deserve so much better.
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How terribly sad!
Do you see this every day Equi? If so you should certainly report it.
Personally and thankfully I do not share the same opinion.
 
Mickyjoe said:
That's undisputed Equi, but I don't necessarily believe that it is worse in Ireland than in the UK for example... Just look at Appleby Fair!! Or the recent report of the poor pony dumped in a rubbish bag - or the pony attacked in its stable with cigarettes and staples.. Similarly the minatures that were attacked by an arsonist in Australia..
Do you believe that every horse that comes from Ireland is beaten, or headshy or because it comes from Ireland it must have been rushed?
Do you compete? Do you go to e.g. Eventing Ireland competitions, where the vast majority of horses are wearing tack that costs more than a lot of people would earn in two or three or more months?
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If i lived in england, i would probably say the same thing! Its all about where you are and what you hear. Its no better or worse than anywhere else, i just have a very high standard of care which i fear there are a lot more who don't. Expensive tack etc doesn't make a good owner.
 
Lark said:
How terribly sad!
Do you see this every day Equi? If so you should certainly report it.
Personally and thankfully I do not share the same opinion.
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I report the ones i feel need reported, not that anything has ever been done. The biggest cases i get irritated about are usually by people who are already banned from keeping horses but continue because noone has stopped them despite numerous reports from various people. But agian, the same probably happens in every country in the world. I just happen to be in ireland.
 
Ok I'll bite. I'm not from here but live here. If anyone wishes to stop by they may. I rent a place with house, land, stables. Land is horrible at the moment. They come in at night to heavily bedded stables of straw.

The horse scene here, it varies like everywhere. The people I know do a decent job. Most try very hard to keep them right. In my circles anyway.

And bears saying. If you aren't happy where you are on full livery (I don't do livery), move. If your not happy anywhere it's you. Buy or rent a place your responsible for everything.

Terri
 
armchair_rider said:
The impression I get is that the Irish as a nation are more horsey than the British - more likely to go to horsey events or gamble on racing and I'd like to think that the roads were safer to ride on.

I think of Ireland as somewhere where you could buy a very nice horse but you'd need contacts or a large budget to get a really good one. There's certainly an impression that Irish horses are produced more slowly and steadily than those on the continent - the contrast between French and Irish chasers for example in terms of how young they are when they appear on the track.

At the other end of the horse ownership spectrum, I doubt there's more cruelty in Ireland. Possibly more horses living in undesirable settings (I saw an article about horses living on council estates in Dublin once) but not being treated any worse than many horses are here.
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Don't think that we are more horsey than you lot - maybe more interested in racing, but there are fewer people who ride.

Roads safer to ride on? Ha ha ha! They're LETHAL, and we don't have bridleways or dedicated crossings, or commons, or anything geared specifically towards horses like you do over there.

Yes, there are plenty of nice horses here, and yes you'll probably have to pay for them. Produced more slowly? Don't know about that, there are plenty of 3 year olds out hunting, not that it does them harm. Horses are possibly produced more simply than on the continent; not on the bit, no fancy stuff, just LOADS of jumping, jumping, jumping.....

And probably no more cruelty or neglect than anywhere else, possibly less deliberate cruelty: we like horses.
 
equi said:
If i lived in england, i would probably say the same thing! Its all about where you are and what you hear. Its no better or worse than anywhere else, i just have a very high standard of care which i fear there are a lot more who don't. Expensive tack etc doesn't make a good owner.
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I also have a very high standard of care, as do any of my friends and professional contacts. Therefore I have to say I take it personally when someone on an internet forum makes such a sweeping statement that they have a low opinion of irish horse people. What on earth makes you think you are the only person in ireland who knows how to care for horses correctly?
 
I have quite a good impression and I'm also of the impression that every Irish person can ride a horse! I'm sure this isn't true, but have yet to meet one who hasn't.

I've worked in Ireland, in a top racing stables where everything was way ahead of the equivalent in the Newmarket yard I'd previously worked for.

I've hunted one day in Ireland and found the hunt bold, well organised and friendly. They certainly seemed to care for their horses, quite possibly because it was in their interests to keep them in good nick, but there was a general recognition of standard, orthodox things you do that is sometimes lacking in the UK, despite more fuss being made about nice yards and so on.

Then I've bought a few horses from Ireland, so I know there must be some very good riders there and I know the standard in showjumping is very high and very competitive. I think theres a lot of riders there who can get quite an ordinary or sticky horse jumping to say 1.20 level which I as an amateur couldn't, so I look for an Irish horse that has jumped successfully with an amateur rider, so hopefully has had the schooling from a professional but as learnt to be tolerant of mistakes. I also bought a 4 year old which was bred in Ireland, which must be the nicest, most well brought up well mannered horse ever. He must also be the only Irish 4 year old never to have hunted, and I wish he had, because he is almost too nice.

I've never had any involvement with the lower end, but that's the same here.
 
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Agreee Terri and the funny thing is that it's often said by first horse owners or very amateurish people. At the other end of the scale there is good reason why the likes of Bruce Davidson, Katie Jerram, Robert Walker etc like to buy so many young but already established horses.. not just the unbroken ones.
 
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