Tag: in-hand showing

Tim enjoys In-Hand Showing at local and County Agricultural Shows throughout Ireland. He has been successful on many occasions including winning All-Ireland Broodmare Championship, Reserve title in the same class, All-Ireland Two Year Old Colt Class, All-Ireland Yearling Filly and All-Ireland Foal class on three occasions with foals by Golden Cliff. Tim has paraded before the Agha Khan Nations Cup competition on several occasions at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) having won The Champion Broodmare Class in 1995 and 1996 with foals at foot by Euphemism.

Tim is firmly of the opinion when it comes to showing that the secret lies more in careful and intelligent breeding than in the actual preparation for showing. “I think a lot of people breeding horses operate on the simple maxim that if an animal is a good jumper it will automatically produce the right progeny. They forget about the importance of conformation and breeding. You want to be aiming to breed big strong quality horses-these can then be tested out as jumpers. If that is not their forte they can make good Eventers or Hunters or else Show-horses. If you have a quality athletic-type horse all options are open”.

Preparation for Showing really starts off with the actual covering. You need to start with a really good brood mare and she must be well fed during pregnancy, this is vitally important. The foal then should also be properly fed, although over feeding is nearly as bad as under-feeding. In Tim’s opinion, the actual physical preparation for the grand finale is the easy part.

He has very decided views on the management of young horses, “I would have mine out 95% of the time in the paddocks, as I believe this regime produces a tougher horse with more bone. In addition, it avoids the development of vices. A major problem today is that many animals are stabled for a long periods of time and are treated rather like turkeys. This results in them becoming bored and very quickly developing stable vices. The end result is that they are not salable. At the end of the day you have to be able to sell your horse should you want to!”