Athletic Foals and Top Speakers at Irish Warmblood Festival & Elite Auction
Details on the 2018 Festival will be published soon.
In the meantime, please read about the 2017 Festival:
Last Saturday’s Irish Warmblood Festival & Elite Auction at Knightfield Equestrian in Kildare was a success with over 95% of tickets sold. Seven of the ten foals were sold to very prominent producers in England and Germany, with four sold in the ring and three outside the ring. Before the auction a prize fund of €10,000 was awarded to the six best Irish Warmblood colts and fillies. The championship was judged by Heinz Meyer, the breeding manager for Paul Shockemoehle. The Championship prize winners are:
Champion Filly: CBI Ivy (Tyson x Carnaby), owned Carroll Brothers Ireland.
Champion Colt: Ballinamurra Intrepid (Ulysses m2s x Rubicell), owned by Claire Wood.
Reserve Champion Filly: LSS Île de Ré (Air Jordan x Carthago), owned by Luke Cafolla.
Reserve Champion Colt: Ballinamurra Ignatius (Ai Weiwei m2s x Desir du Chateau), owned by Claire Wood.
Second Reserve Champion Filly: Fenyas Icon (Newmarket Venture x Golan xx), owned by PJ Hegarty.
Second Reserve Champion Colt: Kilcoursey Ingot (Udancer Hero x Arkansas VDL), owned by Daryl Noble.
The Champion Foals were sponsored by Plusvital, and Dr. Barbara Murphy and Equilume donated the Equilume light system and rug to each of the owners of the champions.
The Reserve Champion Foals were sponsored by Hadley Sport Horses.
The Second Reserve Champion Foals were sponsored by Irish Horse Gateway.
The owners of the other four foals received supplements courtesy of Plusvital.
Every foal owner will be awarded a free service to a WSI Approved Stallion courtesy of Mandy Driesch, Richie Fitzgerald and Bonmahon AI Centre, Calvin McDonald, Ballinamurra Stud, Irish Warmblood National Stud, Tullibards Stud, and Morningside Stud. Those selections will take place in the next ten days.
In the morning Heinz Meyer gave two presentations on Schockemoehle’s breeding and young horse education systems. In the afternoon Michael Sadlier, a partner at Troytown GreyAbbey Equine Hospital and Chairman of the Irish Warmblood Foundation, gave two presentations on caring for the foal and managing the limbs of the young horse. Both speakers gave very informative presentations and were very well received.
Foals were selected for the Festival & Elite Auction by the Warmblood Studbook of Ireland's Mare & Foal Inspection Committee, whose members include both WSI and KWPN inspectors. The three inspectors have bred dozens of international showjumping and eventing horses and many approved stallions, and they assess approximately 1,500 foals, mares, and youngsters each year in Ireland and the Netherlands.
Foals evaluated for the Elite Auction first had to pass the pedigree test. But superior papers were not sufficient for selection. The guiding philosophy is to select athletes: elasticity, excellent gaits -- especially the canter -- and correct conformation were required for selection. The final step in the selection process was the health exam, and a uniform health assessment was conducted on all provisionally-selected foals. The health exam was published on the Festival’s homepage, perhaps the first time this has been done by an Irish auction.
Profits from the Elite Auction will be donated by the organisers to the Irish Warmblood Foundation. The Festival and Elite Auction was organised by the Warmblood Studbook of Ireland, Irish Warmblood National Stud, and Irish Warmblood Foundation.
