Stallion Inspections

The Irish Draught Horse Society (GB) 2012 Stallion Inspections
by Heather Chaplin & Mary Wilson
Photos are by Bryan Bane

Results of the 2012 Irish Draught Horse Society (GB) Stallion Inspections

The 2012 Irish Draught Horse Society (GB) Stallion Inspections were held on Thursday, March 8 at the Unicorn Equestrian Trust in Stow-on-the-Wold.

Congratulations to Allan and Ogilvy Webster and their stallion, Laighlands Lord of the Isles, who graded into Class 1. The 5 year old bay stallion, described by the inspectors as ‘an intelligent horse, forward thinking and business-like’, is the only graded son of Ballyknowe Prince in this country. He represents strong outcross bloodlines and together with three other main studbook stallions which were forward for inspection, he was awarded 10 pedigree bonus points. This feature was introduced by the Horse Sport Ireland Breeding Plan in 2010, to help promote genetic diversity in the breed. Laighlands Lord of the Isles is standing near Perth, in Scotland, with his owners.

Laighlands Lord of the Isles, as a British-bred and produced Class 1 stallion, was also presented with the prestigious BLS award by founder member and our former President, Mrs Pam Symonds, in memory of her late husband Bernard Leckie Symonds.

It was pleasing to have so many applicants for the inspections. From 12 original purebred applicants, nine Irish Draught stallions passed their pre-inspection vetting and x-ray examinations and came forward for inspection and further vetting on the day.

Three sport horse stallions, which are assessed on a different system to the purebreds and are not vetted in advance, came forward for inspection but were not successful in achieving Grade 1 Irish Draught Sport Horse status. Full results and a report will be available on the website and in the newsletter when final veterinary checks on some of the horses have been completed.

The inspectors were Dr Charlotte Moore, Mr Michael Kirwan, Mrs Ellen Walton, Mr Mark Fitton and Mrs Vicky Mathews (purebreds). Mr Mark Fitton, Mrs Ellen Walton and Mr Chris Hewlett inspected the sport horse stallions. Our vets on the day were Mr Sandy Bell and Dr Chris Colles.

The organising team would like to thank all the stallion owners for investing so much time, financial and emotional commitment into their horses and the breed in general. Raising and producing a stallion for inspection always has been a major expenditure, but in the last two years, it has become dramatically more so, just as the costs of running the inspections have increased.

We would also like to thank all our inspectors and vets for their very hard work on the day. We must also thank the Unicorn Equestrian Trust for a luxuriously appointed venue. Last but certainly not least, we are very grateful to our Administrator, Carol Malin, passport administrator Annie Holbeche and all the trustees and members who worked extremely hard to make the day a success.

We were also privileged to receive a visit from Ms Alison Corbally, Director of Breeding from Horse Sport Ireland. Ms Corbally seemed pleased with the way in which the inspections were conducted.

The procedures are now much better embedded than last year and we have climbed a little further up the learning curve, but as always, we have taken away some learning points for next year. We are actively seeking feedback from all our helpers and participants.

MW/HC 12/03/2012

 

Stallions approved March 2012

Colt Inspections - 2011
Colt Inspections - 2010
Colt Inspections - 2009

Stallion Inspections - Media Galleries

Irish Draught Horse Society (GB)
http://www.idhsgb.com/web/staticpages/index.php/colt_inspections