Review from 'The Field' on the Mayo Roscommon Select Foal Sale
Review of the very successful Foal Sale in the Edition of the Farmers Journal
The Mayo Roscommon Breeders Group was first established in 2009 by the founding members Patrick Hester Jnr, Mark Hester, Noel Kilroy and the late Jarlath Cummins to create a group of like minded performance horse breeders in the Mayo Roscommon area to exchange knowledge and gain from each others experience.
The group annually hosts its performance foal show where foals are linear scored for their breeding and performance traits while being presented in a loose format along side the mare. In recent years the show has moved location to Roscommon Agricultural Show where the class has grown in popularity due to the high calibre foal inspectors and a generous prize-fund co-funded with Horse Sport Ireland which aims to reward the breeder for their breeding endeavours.
The group was successfully approved by the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine in 2016 under the European Knowledge Transfer scheme which has enabled the group to grow its membership, gain knowledge from guest speakers and as the group dynamic has evolved so has the groups innovation to solve problems in their breeding programs and problems they are faced with in the Industry.
Marketing and selling of horses were two of the main areas of interest for the breeders during year two of the KT Programme 2017-2018 which through facilitated discussed within the Mayo Roscommon Breeders Group two new innovative solutions have been developed to aid the marketing and promotion of the groups horses.
Mayo Roscommon Breeders Group 3
Year Old Loose Schooling Day
Annually the group hosts a three-year-old sport horse schooling day to prepare young three year old horses for sale and competition. This year the group provided loose schooling and marketing service to group members which was also open to the wider equestrian community to attend. Here is a link to a short video which explains the Schooling Day concept: https://youtu.be/jx7tXwbq-Bk
Patrick Hester talks with HSI accredited judge and international show jumper Jack Doyle, part of the Select Foal Jumping Panel on the Benefits of the Sale.
The Mayo Roscommon Breeders group began the process during 2018 to run a number of selection days across the country and introduce a golden ticket system to award prizewinning foals with entry to the select foal sale. The show will present a unique breeders sale of the top foals for the combined benefit of the breeder and buyer.