Shoulders should be clean-cut and not loaded, withers well defined, not coarse; the neck set in high and carried proudly, showing a good length of rein.

The chest should not be too broad and beefy. The forearms should be long and muscular, not caught in at the elbows; the knee large and generous, set near the ground, and the cannon bone straight and short, with plenty of flat clean bone, and never back at the knee (calf-kneed) i.e. not sloping forward from knee to fetlock.

The bone must not be round or coarse. The legs should be clean and hard with a little hair permissible at the back of the fetlock, as a necessary protection; the pasterns strong and in proportion, not short and upright nor long and weak. The hoof should be generous and sound, not boxy or contracted and there should be plenty of room at the heel.

Appendix Irish Draught refers to mares only.

Mares inspected at two years of age or older and approved as AID by an official inspection panel must have one parent approved as RID either the dam or the sire and three RID grandparents. No warmblood or foreign bloodlines other than thoroughbred and both parents and grandparents registered in the IHR main studbook.

Irish Draught

Irish Draught refers to

1. All pure bred animals which are eligible for or have failed inspection
2. Stallions which have been selected for and are awaiting performance testing prior to approval

Irish Horse Register

Irish Sport Horse

The traditionally bred Irish Sport Horse or half-bred was a cross between the Thoroughbred stallion and the Registered Irish Draught mare.

The half-bred mare when crossed again with a Thoroughbred stallion produced a three-quarter bred. The modern Irish Sport Horse may contain bloodlines from many different breeds including European breeds.

The terms Irish Sport Horse, Sport Horse, Irish Hunter, Hunter, Non-thoroughbred are names used to describe the same animal

Registered Irish Draught

Registered Irish Draught refers to

1. Mares and Geldings inspected at two years of age or older and approved as RID by an official inspection panel. Sires of mares must be RID, dams of mares must be RID or AID.
2. Stallions inspected by a panel of judges and a veterinary surgeon and pass a performance test for approval as RID at three years of age or older. Sires of stallions must be RID, dams of stallions must be RID, both entered into the Irish Horse Register, or into a studbook of a recognised daughter society of the Irish Draught Horse Society(Irl.) (Approved)