THE UPS AND DOWNS OF BREEDING HORSES

My brother Allan and I have bred Irish Draught horses for the past seven years and have travelled to country shows in Scotland and England. We show in the “In Hand” class and have had varying degrees of success. We know full well everyone thinks their horse is the best, although it’s down to the judges on the day.

This past season we’ve had exceptional success with our horses, winning championships and reserve championships at numerous shows. A real show  stopper was our home bred yearling colt “Ethan”, in his first season of showing he won all the Irish draught classes.

It was especially gratifying for us at Perth show, when he won the DRB Championship and was reserve overall Irish Draught Champion. The busy show season culminated in September winning the Yearling class at the Irish Draught Breed near Woscester. A stable mate “Murphy” was reserve Irish Draught Young Stock Champion at the same show.

However, very sadly “Ethan” was found dead in his paddock at the beginning of September. We were completely devastated, as we felt he was the best horse we had bred to date. We had such high hopes for him as a stallion.          

We now have to look ahead to the spring and the arrival of our new foals. Fingers crossed for another “Ethan”