The Irish Draught Horse: A History

Welcome to the companion website of the new book

first published by The Collins Press in 2005

Now available in PAPERBACK

...

HARDCOVER book is "Out of Print" but sometimes available on Amazon or Ebay.

Irish Draught Horse Resource Guide, last updated 07 August 2008

About the Book:

The Irish Draught Horse is unique in the world and is an icon in the Irish landscape. The foundation breed for the world-famous Irish hunter, it has never been the subject of a comprehensive book. Historicially, the horse was so much part of the landscape it tended to blend into the background. But today the horse is a luxury, a leisure and competition horse much valued by a new generation of horse owners. Here the story of the 'horse of the people' is told before facts and details vanish forever, in this first complete account of its cultural and historical significance. The contributors trace its evolution as a working horse through to its almost overnight disappearance with 1960s mechanization. Illustrated with wonderful images, this will be the cherished book of record for this subject.

The Irish Draught Horse: A History

Table of Contents

Foreword by Marily Power and Susan Lanigan-O'Keeffe of Suma Stud
Introduction by Joan C. Griffith
Archaeology: Horses in Early Ireland by Finbar McCormick
Manuscripts: The Horse in Early Irish Society by Fergus Kelly
Mythology: The Horse in Irish Myth and Folklore by Dáithí Ó'hÓgáin
Horse Images in Irish Art by Mary McGrath
Working on the Land by John Feehan
For Everything there is a Season by Mary McGrath
Economic Role of the Work Horse in Nineteenth Century Ireland by Stuart N. Lane
Horse Fairs by Marjorie Quarton
Recognition and Development by Colin A. Lewis
Genetic Aspects of the Irish Draught Horse by Dr. John Flynn
Present Day Competition Horse by Norman Storey
The Irish Draught Horse in the Twenty-first Century by Joan C. Griffith and Mary McGrath
Selected Annotated Bibliography on the Irish Draught Horse by Joan C. Griffith

“The Farmer's horse is an animal of all-work; to be ridden occasionally to market or for pleasure,
but to be principally employed for draught. A farmer, and, more particularly, a small farmer,
will prefer a mare to a gelding, both for riding and driving. She will not cost him so much at first;
and he will get a great deal more out of her. There can be no doubt
that, taking bulk for bulk, a mare is stronger and more lasting than a gelding;
and, in addition to this, the farmer has her to breed from."

from the annotated bibiliography by William Youatt,
The horse, with a treatise on draught;
and a copious index, 1831.

Draught-Mare (1840), book plate origin unknown

photo from the Introduction, The Irish Draught Horse: A History