General and specific
The majority of purebred Irish Draughts I have know and worked with are very smart, unlikely to get overly dramatic, very very much want to be worked and trained regularly, their body conformation has a good but wide saddle position and tend to fit med-wide and wide saddles without a lot of custom fitting. I have found them very tough soundness wise…even with an obvious injury(which they are not at all prone to do) they tend to ignore it and keep playing or working. They assess their handler very quickly. If you are in charge…great…but it will come up for discussion regulary. If they are in charge they can be knocking you in the head, in your space, dragging you to grass…this is a trait of most big horses and is not unique to the Draughts.
As riding horses they start very easily. I have yet to have either a youngster or an older horse offer any difficultness. They tend to not like to lunge very forward and will beg you to just get on…“I am BROKE already!” You MUST establish a forward work ethic from the beginning and I have used ground people with lunge whips to help establish this…but I have done it with other quiet breeds too. You must have the work be fun at first as they get bored and wonder why they are going in circles. I have sent all my youngsters out to be started as I want them to get going to work and I tend to putz and they get bored. Learning that work ethic is doubly important with big smart horses. I have not had any trouble with canter…Irish Draughts SHOULD have a very good canter. The Irish people don’t DO dressage but their horses are very talented and have so much natural body strength through their core that moving up is easy for them. The judges like them and score them well. They are competitive with all but the most extravagant warmbloods…and they they are easier to live with.
Living with Irish Draughts is easy. They take care of themselves indoors or out. They DO REQUIRE good electric to keep them off board fences and gates. I would want good working fences…they are not horses you want in and on again off again fencing that keep Arabs and TBs and other sensitive breeds in. Nice hot fences. They are hard on stuff because they have no fear of bashing and crashing noises. I have seen sqwushed buckets, demolished gates, folded round pens. They will play with things other horses won’t touch, and chase each other around the pasture with the “toy”. It is not like having ONE mischievious horse in your herd, they are ALL like that. I have a Welsh Cob filly who is ten times worse but I only have ONE Welsh Cob…thank God.
SO…the bad of Irish Draughts…they can be very wide and require custom saddles. I have two who have heads bigger that the usual “warmblood” sized tack. I sell them with their bridles and halters to save a new owner from searching. If they are silly it is a very big very athletic silly horse. I do know one who is silly and wide but has a lot of talent…his owner likes small quiet horses and she is not having fun. Likey he will settle down at some point but Irish Draughts can still be growing and adolecent till they are 8 or more. I would guess that is the case for the Macha Breezes as he also was very late to settle down. They can be very goofy looking for a very long time. I think one needs to still have high expectations and work them seriously and not wait for them to get it together as they need that work ethic. If you putz they will never rise to their ability.
They tend to be VERY under estimated by trainers and clinicians. They are very able to rise to high expectations. All the trainers who have worked with my horses have gotten very excited by them and they are MYTH busters. Most trainers and clinicians see a big DraftX type and these are NOT that at all. They are athletes and very coordinated, naturally strong cores eith good work ethics and a love of challenge. I have seen them do easy levades, piaffs, passage, changes with no fuss. I have seen an old fat stallion come out of the pasture and be ridden out alone by an unknown level stranger and then jumped. My own mare is very easy and very honest and very talented…and new trainer is working her over fences and is genuinely crestfalled when she is not on the lesson plan that day. She is FUN to ride with out ever feeling you have a horse that is too much for you…or too little for you… regardless of the level.
I do not have experience working with the Irish Draught Sport Horses. I would like to cross on the hotter French warmbloods to lighten and quicken them, I agree you want a TB with bone as they an throw a very big body and you want sufficient limbs to carry and stay sound. Generally they have excellent feet to contribute to the cross. A steady mind…but be prepared to get the TB temperament on a big powerful athletes body and you would have an upperlevel mount but it may be for a pro at least in the begining. The Irish Draught has a great history of crossing well with TBs and producing a very successful market horse but if you are planning for a quiet horse for yourself you may instead get an upper level horse for a pro to sell on to an event rider.
I is good to do research as some mares and stallions produce temperaments for amateurs…the stallion Mountain Pearl is one. Also the quality of the “other” breed is very important. The Irish Draught isn’t going to fix a mess. It will provide substance soundness and temperament is you give them a chance. PatO Merrypath Irish Draughts Minnesota
