2017 The main two components of the Irish Sport Horse are the
Irish Draught (RID) and
Thoroughbred breeds. Historically, Irish hunters were classified by weight typically based on the percentage of Thoroughbred blood—heavyweight hunters were either 100% Irish Draught or 1/4 Thoroughbred cross, mediumweight were half Thoroughbred, and lightweight were 3/4 Thoroughbred. The Irish Sport Horse received a small (5%) infusion of warmblood blood in the 1990s from crosses with
Hanoverian,
Selle Français and
Trakehner horses. In recent years,
European warmbloods have been used to cross with RID to make Irish Sport Horses because the warmbloods mature faster than Thoroughbreds. According to Emily Donoho, "while [adding warmbloods] increases genetic diversity and gets more Irish horses in the showjumping ring, some competitors and breeders are concerned that the traditional TB-ID lines are being lost". A report from a study of Irish Draught genetics recognized the importance of ID genes in producing high quality contemporary
sport horses, however it pointed out the difficulties because of the small population size of the endangered Irish Draught, and the problems of dilution on second and third generations without additional infusion of ID blood.
Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) maintains the Irish Sport Horse Studbook by authority of the
Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. HSI also maintains a category for Traditional Irish Horse (TIH) which is a designation for horses with
only Irish Sport Horse, Irish Draught, Thoroughbred, and
Connemara Pony in their pedigrees. The Australian society, established in 1989, requires an Irish Sport Horse to have at least 25% Irish Draught and no other breeds except Thoroughbred, they require an inspection to enter the studbook, and use the standards of the Irish studbook. The North American society, established in 1993, requires 1/4 RID (verified through DNA) and an inspection. They do have an uninspected classification which allows as little as 1/8 RID. == Uses ==