Irish Horse Breeding and the Irish Draught Horse, 1917-1978' by COLIN a LEWIS
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Irish horse breeding and the Irish Draught Horse, 1917-1978' By COLIN A LEWIS I was later named the Shire Horse Society. Introduction The first volume of the Clydesdale stud URING the last quarter of the book' was published in I878, to be followed ,nineteenth century strenuous efforts in 188o by the first volumes for Suffolk, and, D were made to collect and publish the in I884 for Shire Horses. The Select pedigrees of many different types of horses in Clydesdale Society of Scotland, a splinte r the British Isles. The inland transport system group founded in 1883 that soon came to an depended on railways, canals, and on horses. end, also published a stud book in I884. Some were used for heavy haulage, some as The Hack,ley Stud Book Society -~ was vanners, some for riding, many for agri- formed in I883 for '... the publication of a cultural and pack purposes. The first volume Stud Book for Hackneys, Roadsters, Cobs of the General Stud Book, which listed the and Ponies'. The Cleveland Bay Horse pedigrees of many racehorses, was published Society was also founded that year, and both in I8O8, although the first part of the volume societies published the first volumes of their appeared in 1791. It had proved of immense stud books in 1884. The next year The value to the racing industry, and it was Hunters' Improvement and National Light widely appreciated that similar stud books Horse Breeding Society was 'Established to for other types of horses would also be of use. improve the Breed and promote the Breed- Furthermore, some people believed that the ing of Hunters and other Horses used for statement of a standard for different types of Riding or Driving, and for Military pur- horses, combined with inspection of poten- poses'. The Society later published its Hunter tial entrants to the stud book to ensure that Stud Book that, like most of the stud books they conformed to the standard, would lead already listed, included e,atries from Ireland. to widespread improvements in the quality Before a stallion could be entered in the of horses. It was also appreciated that the Hunter Stud Book 3 it had to be '... inspected i,terbreeding of horses of similar characteri- and passed by a member of the Society stics over a number of generations would nominated and approved by the Editing result in the formation of a fixed type, or Committee', and it had to pass a veterinary 'breed'. examination. Mares were entered on diffe- In 1877 the Suffolk Stud Book Associa- rent terms, although for many years one tion, as well as that for the Clydesdale Horse, method of entry was by inspection, and that was established. These were the first stud did not necessitate any knowledge of the book associations for heavy horses to be pedigree of the mare. formed in the British Isles. They were Although The Hunters' Improvement followed in 1878 by the English Cart Horse Society required inspection of stallions Society of Great Britain and Ireland, which before entry to the Hunter Stud Book, not all societies were so rigorous. The Shire Horse * The author thanks An Bord na gCapall for allowing him free access to their records, Mr Stuart G Daultrey for aid with trt'nd surface 'K Chivers, Ttle Shire Horse, 1976, pp 131 ft. analyses, Mr E. Buckmaster for drawing the final maps, and the *T Ryder, The H(~h Stepper, t979, p 62. referees for their constructive advice. 37JHmlter Stud Book, VI, p i. 1,i Ii 38 THE AGRICULTURAL HISTORY REVIEW Society'... decided otherwise and the breed II was developed almost solely by the system of The Irish Draught Horse gradually tightening the rules for pedigree'. 4 By the end of the nineteenth century there Other societies established Foundation were at least two well developed types of Stock registers, as did the Welsh Pony and horses in Ireland that were not assignable to Cob Society in I927. This enabled the any of the breeds already recognized and pedigree of animals of non-Welsh parentage possessing stud book societies in Britain. to be recorded• s By serving foundation stock These were the ponies of Connemara and the mares and their progeny for three genera- Irish Draught. The ponies 9 were the subject tions with registered Welsh sires, the of an officially sponsored enquiry by Profes- offspring were progressively upgraded and sor Ewart of Edinburgh University that finally qualified for entry in the Stud Book. eventually resulted in the foundation of the Although many stud book societies were Connemara Pony Breeders Society in I923. formed in Britain during the later nineteenth The first volume of the Connemara Pony Stud century, none originated ira Ireland. Instead, Book was issued in I926. at the inaugural meeting of the Council of The Irish Draught Horse was described by Agriculture, held on 29 May 1900 in Dublin, R G Carden ira I9o7 as the chairman stated that the Department of • . a long, low build of animal, rarely exceeding Agriculture and Technical Instruction, Ire- I5.3 or I6 hands high, with strong, short, clean land, was contemplating the formation of legs, plenty of bone and substance, short backs, '... a Committee or a permanent Comnais- strong loins and quarters . slightly upright sion to deal with this important question of shoulders, strong necks and a smallish head. horse breeding'. 6 Later in the meeting MrJ J They had a good, straight, level action, without its being extravagant, could trot, canter and Molloy stressed that efforts should be made gallop. They were also excellentjumpers... No to improve the breeding of horses in Ireland. authentic information in regard to their breeding Five years later the Department '... offered is now available, though, no doubt, many to owners of stallions of the old Irish Draught breeders carefully preserved the strain in their type . a premium of £5o for selected breeding studs for many years, but it may generally be taken that the original breeding of" stallions', 7 and in I9II the Department's the Irish draught horse was the result of the cross annual Register of Stallions accorded Irish of" the imported thoroughbred sires on the Draught Horses '... formal recognition by stronger otthe well-bred mares of the country, the listing of stallions under that designa- which latter must have had an infusion of Spanish tion'. In the same year the Department or Arabian blood in their veins. ,o inspected 5040 mares at sixty different Whether horses of this type were confined exhibitions and '... z64 were selected as to Ireland is debatable. In I912 A W eligible for prizes and for registration as Irish Anstruther in presenting a report of the Draughts'. ~Thus, unlike the breed and stud Board of Agriculture and Fisheries ira book societies founded ira Britain, the book Britain," referred to '... the old breed of for Irish Draught Horses was established by Welsh Light Cart Horses', which provided the Government through the action of the '... light-legged mares suitable for Hunter Department of Agriculture and Technical breeding'. The Board had initiated a scheme Instruction. '... to preserve the native hardy breed and ensure its reproduction', but unfortunately the scheme, apparently, did not succeed. 4Chivers, op cit, p 172. -~W Davies, Welsh Ponies and Cobs, ,980, p 24. 'JC A Lewis 'The Connemara Pony', Irish Equestrian News, 198o, p 30. r'C A Lewis, Horse breeding in Ireland, 198o, p 15o. '°R G Carden in Sir H de Trafford (ed) The horses ofthe British Empire, ~Ibid, p 165. 19o7, p 23t. Slbid, p 165. "Hunter Stud Book, op cit. p 2z2. IRISH HORSE BREEDING 39 III Department's inspectors accepted for regi- The Irish Draught Horse Book stration in their tours of I917-I9. Why no In I91 I, I9 T7--T 8 and I9I 9 the Department of records exist of the remaining Io mares is Agriculture sent official inspectors through- unknovvn. The Books usually record the out Ireland to examine mares submitted for name and official registration number of the registration as Irish Draughts. The Depart- mare, the name and address of its owner and, ment believed that 'A lesson may be learned occasionally, of its breeder, the mare's from the manner in which the various colour, distinguishing marks, height, year of English breeds of live stock have been birth and, in most cases, limited information improved within recent times through the as to its pedigree. In a very few cases the foals establishment of stud books and the forma- produced by the mare, with the names of tion of breed societies', '-" and had decided to their sires, are listed. By assuming that the found a stud book for Irish Draughts. mares were located at, or adjacent to, their During the four years over 70oo mares were owners' addresses, it becomes possible to inspected and 952 were passed as eligible for map the distribution and certain physical registration. Unfortunately, when the first characteristics of Irish Draught mares in the volume of the Irish Draught Horse Book was I917-I9 period. published in 1918 it did not include details of Although Volume Four of the stud book any of the 264 mares passed in I9I I (out of a was apparently published, no copies are total horse population of 616, 33 I) although known to exist. Subsequent to the publica- it did list some of the 44 stallions registered in tion of that volume, no further publication the year. was undertaken, although annual inspec- The Inspectors' Report for I917 indicates tions of mares submitted for registration the criteria that guided the choice of mares were made outside Northern Ireland by for registration.