Have there been any successful Irish Sport horses in dressage?
Tom Dvorak’s 1998 World Cup mount, Clearly Canadian, is said to be/have been 1/4 Irish Draught.
O’Leary’s Irish Diamond qualified for Regional Finals at PSG, but he is a full RID, not an ISH.
A friend of mine is currently show PSG on an unreg. Irish sport horse.
Lower levels
I have a coming 5 yo traditional type (more baroque) purebred gelding. He qualified for Regionals with a professional at Training(this horse is a sale project and so I wanted to use a pro to see if it helped). He did well with all judges…there didn’t seem to be any judging challenges like I have seen with Arabians and Friesians. If he had a lower score it was a fair issue. He was competitive with nice warmbloods and very consistent with wins against professionals. I was thinking he was a nice lower level horse but he has been with two trainers and they don’t feel he is limited. His trainability is very high and he just loves to show…very social. All three gaits are good…easy to sit…like a sofa.
He is now easily working Training /1st and at a recent clinic when ridden more aggressively with Hokan Thorn was calmly offering half steps and a huge improvement in canter…I think he was surprised in himself. He is maintaining the quality now that we know it is there to ask for. I had thought him limited due to just being slower footed and easy going but with raised expectations he stepped right up to the plate…and got those feet going MUCH quicker.
I think that the Irish Draught does very well in dressage. They do best with a lot of variety both in their dressage training and in ridden life. If you are a rail rat then Irish Draughts will likely be bored as they pick up the lesson quickly and need more challenges. However they need more work to get fit to move up and so getting them out on the trail or field work is more important. The good news is they are fun and not drama queens riding out. My horses are pretty young and still they are a good choice for an accomplished amateur. As we train we are learning more about them as performance horses…and raising our expectations as we go. PatO
more Advanced
Western Sun was an accomplished Advanced level Dressage horse in Great Britain before import. I don’t have a link for him.
KEC Double Diamond http://www.adsagsona.com/News/DN_2002.htm#Debuts
http://www.adsagsona.com/News/Breeding_News.htm#RPSI
Jutta was also the trainer of Olearys Irish Diamond and trained him through 2nd level to west coast success.
When you consider how few irish Draughts we have gotten into training over here they have had a lot of success. Those foaled over here are just now starting to compete. PatO
I had one I schooled to PSG. (showed to what is now 3rd level) I did quite well on that mare locally, but she is a jumper now. She was more suited to that. (in fact she won the Sagaponack derby a few years ago in New York)
In 2007 year end awards for Region 8, an RID named Diamond’s Donegal was 5th in the AA PSG.
Galanta, owned and ridden by Oryla Ramsey, took 4th level AA California Dressage Society championship this year… Also took the AllBreeds award.
well, i can’t say anything for straight dressage, but I know several event horses competing at the upper levels with very nice dressage which are Irish Sport Horses. I also worked with an Irish Sport Horse gelding for a while and ended up selling him to a semi-BNT (dressage). He is doing 2nd level now and should be moving up to 3rd in the near future. Very nice gaits and a GREAT jumper (not that that is applicable here…
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We have one in NZ that’s been shortlisted for the Olympics…at least I’m pretty sure it’s an Irish Sport Horse…
I would imagine the most successfull would have to be Wily Trout. I don’t think any other Irish bred horse has even competed in Olympic Dressage, let alone finished 5th like Wily Trout did. He was also an advanced level eventer, I think he went around Badminton before he got injured and had to stick to dressage.
ISH Jumper stallion Pallos
Here is a link to a pic of this very nice horse. If you scroll down, there is a pic of Debbie Stephens jumping him… I don’t know if she still rides him but he seems very cool…
http://www.acornhillfarm.com/stallions/index.php?stallion=pallas
