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About the Irish Draught Horse

The Irish Draught is renowned for being strong and sound with an intelligent and gentle nature, loved for its docile nature and common sense attitude.   The purebred Irish Draught is popular in eventing, showing and as a hunter, as well as police horses due to their temperament and strength.

The Irish Draught Horse is an active, short-shinned, powerful horse with substance, good bone and quality. It should have a deep girth coupled with a strong back and quarters. The breed usually stands between 15.2 hh – 16.2 hh in mares and 16 hh – 17 hh in stallions and can be any whole colour. The horse has a graceful carriage of head and neck with a big, kind eye, strong limbs with particularly short cannon bones. Despite the power, the horse should be free moving and not ponderous. The feet should be like those of a hunter and not like a carthorse. The feet are one of the most important points and the reason why the Irish Draught is required for the breeding of show jumpers is that they have to withstand the concussion from jumping, often on hard surfaces.

The Irish Draught was initially bred to be an all-round working horse, suitable for draft work, under harness and under saddle.  Over time the demand for the Irish Draught has changed from draft and harness work to be the versatile allrounder that it is today.  The Irish Draught stallion is being used more and more to get extra bone and substance in the progeny of the lighter type mare. Predominantly the Irish Draught is commonly crossbred with Thoroughbreds and Warmbloods to produce high-quality sport horses.  This cross is termed the Irish Sport Horse . Demand for the Irish Sport Horse has led to a thriving export of horses for use in competition.  Whilst the breed has been in existence for a century or more,  it has been nearly lost on several occasions.

Ironically, it is the Irish Draught’s popularity as a foundation animal for the production of sport horses that has put the breed at risk as not enough Irish Draught mares are producing a purebred replacement for the herd.  Also, aggressive selection for showjumping characteristics has further degraded the foundation stock as those primary characteristics of substance, bone, temperament and strength are superseded by speed, agility and performance.

Buying An Irish Draught

If you have decided that the Irish Draught is the breed for you then it is very easy to search for the horse that matches your requirements at Right Horse Right Home. Users of the website can find out a large amount of detail about each horse for sale before applying for the horse and using the tried and tested service. If you want more information about how and why our system works the click here.

Also offered is the ability to post a detailed wanted advert  specifying exactly what you are looking for allowing people with suitable Welsh Cobs for sale or loan to come to you directly. To create a free wanted advert with Right Horse Right Home simply register and Click here.