Ireland's traditional workhorse, the Irish draught, is in severe danger of becoming extinct because most of those owning them are breeding mares with non-draught horses to create showjumpers.
With just over 1,000 mares registered, the breed society and Teagasc, the agriculture and food development authority, are attempting to persuade Irish draught owners to breed Irish draught horses.
The issue was raised at the recent Teagasc National Horse Breeding conference in Kildalton by Norman Storey, Teagasc equine specialist. With the increase in the use of warmblood stallions in Irish sport, mare numbers must increase to bring back traditional breeding, he said. The number of Irish draught mares had declined and currently stands at approximately 1,200.
"If there is to be a swing back to traditional breeding, there will have to be a significant increase in the number of Irish draught mares. For this to happen all of the Irish draught mares will have to be bred pure for a number of years," said Mr Storey.
A series of discussions to attempt to reverse this situation have been arranged between breeders and the Royal Dublin Society.
The Department of Agriculture is to be asked to pay breeders to revert to traditional breeding so the numbers will not continue to drop.
It has also been proposed that a breeding mare's first foal should be a pure-bred draught and that breeders be compensated for this.
The breed has been in steady decline since the 1960s when many draught horses were replaced by tractors on Irish farms. With the new affluence, the Irish draught mare became very valuable for producing showjumping horses when cross-bred with thoroughbred stallions.
However, breeders have neglected to breed pure-bred draughts which are now under pressure because neither the pure-bred mares nor stallions are being replaced.