Brexit and Horse Breeding

Brexit is going to hit horse breeding very hard. Unless you are breeding top class show jumping horses the biggest market for the average Irish Horse is the United Kingdom (UK). German, French, Dutch and Belgium people are not going to travel to Ireland to buy warmblood horses to compete at amateur level or showjump at 1.10, 1.20 & 1.30 meter showjumping competitions they do not have to travel her to buy these types of warmblood horse which is readily available in their own country and these are the types of horses they used to. They like Irish Bred Horses in the UK and they do not breed enough horses domestically to fill the demand for horses in the UK. The Irish Draught breed of the Irish Sport Horse when crossed with a thoroughbred, as a significant numbers of people travel to Ireland to purchase Irish Draught and Irish Sports Horses it is important that breeders continue to breed them to fill this demand. The UK is the largest market for these horses and it is important that it remains open as if there is no large and easily accessible market for these horses breeders will stop breeding them and we will gradually lose our native breed of horse. We can not compete with breeders on the continent in relation to breeding warmblood Horses. The German French Dutch and Belgium Breeders specialize in warmbloods. If an individual breeder uses warmbloods here and it works for them fine but I believe for the vast majority of breeders who are unlikely to breed a world class showjumper sticking to Irish Bloodlines is best. All the best stallions in Ireland Clover Hill, Ballinavella, King of Diamonds, Crusing etc were Irish Bred Horses and that is what we should be getting back to

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"Devastation and Revenge" by Kevin MacLeod (http://incompetech.com)