November 6, 2009

The Irish Sport Horse Studbook has topped the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses Rankings for the breeding of event horses for the 15th year in succession.

The success was confirmed at the congress of the World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses in Copenhagen where the prize was presented to Horse Sport Ireland Director of Breeding and Programmes Alison Corbally by her Royal Highness Princess Benedikte of Denmark.

Speaking after receiving the award Corbally said that it was a significant achievement and she paid tribute to Irish breeders who had bred so many top eventers.

"For a small country this is a significant achievement and those who bred the horses deserve great credit" she said.

The top ranked Irish-bred eventer in the world last year was Ringwood Cockatoo (ISH), a 1991 gelding by Peacock (TB), out of Baileys Folly (ISH), bred in Co Monaghan by Hilary Greer. Ringwood Cockatoo was retired at the age of 18 at Boekelo in October of this year after a 10-year international career which saw him win 10 three star events and two four stars. Ringwood Cockatoo was the most successful event horse to compete under the German flag of all time.

But Corbally said Irish breeders cannot be complacent and she pointed that other countries were revising their breeding programmes for eventing horses and that they were gaining ground.

"To win this for 15 years in succession is a fantastic achievement but we have to ensure that our breeding programme is effective and we will have a new enhanced programme in place for 2010," she said.

Corbally also confirmed that the studbook had been awarded second place in the studbook rankings following the World Breeding Championships for event horses which took place in Le Lions d'Angers in October.

The Irish Sport Horse Studbook had originally been placed fourth in the competition but following an appeal to the Executive Committee of the WBFSH in relation to how weightings were applied to the results of six-year-old horses the scores were recalculated. As a result the Irish Sport Horse Studbook then finished second to the French studbook who had a lot more horses in the competition as France was the host country.

"This was a very encouraging result as the horses who secured us second place were mainly by Irish riders. In the past our success has generally been based on Irish-bred horses being ridden by foreign riders," she said.