Leitrim BranchBranch Secretary
2012IDHBA National Awards NightHosted by the Leitrim Branch March 2012On Saturday 10th March, the Leitrim Branch will be hosting a Seminar to discuss how to improve the breeding of Irish competition horses. The speakers are Alison Corbally, Director of Breeding, HSI; Capt Brian Curran Cournane from the Army Equitation School; Tiernan Gill and Philip Scott, producers of competiton and show horses. February 2012Leitrim Branch A.G.M. |
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The speakers were chosen as they are experts in their own fields and the knowledge that they passed on was invaluable to all those that attended. Kevin Croke, Chairman of the IDHBA welcomed everyone and for the first half of the evening judges Pat McCarthy from Co Cork and Michael Kirwan from Co Kilkenny provided comprehensive information on what a judge or inspector is looking for and how to choose a stallion to compliment your mare, together with information on the new Breeding Policy. David McCann, respected vet from Co Meath offered great information on horses from a vets view and Norman Storey from TEAGASC gave a detailed talk on show organisation and the new linear scoring system for mare and stallion inspections. Audience participation was encouraged and there were some lively debates.
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The training was open to all and the audience of over 70 was made up of people of all ages from the local area as well as from Sligo, Longford, Mayo, Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan but the person who came furthest was Cheryl Anderson who is an Irish Draught member from Canada.
Once the indoor training had been completed, refreshments were provided and then the audience went to the stables where they were shown a variety of horses and the speakers advised on the good and not so good points of each horse. Also on show was the fabulous stallion Hillviewfarm Superstar owned by Gerry Quinn from Castlerea. Finally, the audience were then given the opportunity to judge a mare using a simplified linear scoring system and compare their results against those of the judges who had scored her earlier in the day.
Thanks go to everyone who made the evening a great success and hopefully everyone went away with a greater understanding of the requirements for successful breeding and we can once again aim to breed and export the quality draught horses that we were once renowned for and compete successfully against foreign breeds.
The training evening was held in association with Leitrim Development Company and BMW Skillnet who helped with funding for this fabulous event.