Tribute has been paid to the Irish Draught horse, which contributed to the country's social history over generations, in a new book launched in Dublin last night.
The book, published by the Irish Draught Horse Society, is a personal memoir to the great mares and stallions that made up the Irish Draught breed. It also includes reports and updates from international breeders who are battling to ensure it becomes one of the world's great horses.
The book has been launched against a backdrop of concern that crossbreeding the Irish Draught horse with European warm bloods is threatening the breed.
Irish Draught expert, Ms Elizabeth Deane, who contributed extensively to the publication, said the breed is at risk.
"The Irish Draught was always crossed with the thoroughbred and this was, and is, a very successful cross which we like to encourage. The warm blood produces a different horse.
"I feel we have genetically valuable stock that we need to utilise and preserve for the future of the breed. It is vital that we breed our draughts pure and true to type," she said
Her views are echoed in the book by an authority on the Irish Draught, writer Mr Nicholas O'Hare, who has consistently cautioned breeders on the implications of the pursuit of a lighter horse.
For Mr O'Hare the most enduring feature of the Irish Draught, now recruited by the Garda, is its superlative temperament. But in the debate over breed purity versus performance, he makes a strong case for bone. "Once eradicated, \ cannot be replaced."
The demand of show jumping has been the main single factor in shaping the modern Irish Draught, which is traced to the great horses such as the King of Diamonds and Clover Hill.
Over generations the Irish Draught mare has more than earned her keep. In addition to working on the farm, and providing family transport, she also bred consistently and in comparison with the labour intensive thoroughbred, easily, producing a core stock of horses.
Mechanisation made the horse redundant as a farm worker and throughout the 1940s and 1950s many Irish Draught mares ended up in the meat markets of Europe.
But in a sports context, the story is different. When crossbred with the thoroughbred, the Irish Draught produces a lighter, faster, more athletic horse that can jump, hunt, event and perform well at dressage.
However, with greater emphasis being placed on sporting performance, and lighter bone, the traditional Irish Draught appeared to lose out.
