Training Events
Upcoming training events | Previous training events | World Championship Team Selection
The Training Programme
Training days at stud farms and production yards around the country provide a fantastic opportunity to engage with some of the best in the business. Training not only supports preparation for competition, but is also educational for those who aren’t perhaps interested in / available to compete.
New participants in the Equine Young Breeders (IRE) programme, aged 14/15-30 years of age, are always welcome.
‘Young Breeders’ is accessible to ALL young horse lovers in this age group. The vision is to train the breeders, and industry contributors of the future, while providing opportunity to network with other like minded people, and maybe even meeting new lifelong friends.
National and World Championship competition are an important aspect of the programme, providing an opportunity to benchmark knowledge and skill levels against others, whilst also networking and making friendships. Only those aged 16-25 years of age in the year of championships are eligible to compete.
World Championship Team Selection
The Young Breeder National Championships are the first step in the qualification/selection process for team participation at the World Championships. The next WBFSH International Young Breeders World Championships is to take place 16-19 July 2026 at Celle State Stud Germany. Those aged 16-26 in 2026 (born 2000 to 2010) are eligible to progress toward that goal.
Competitors and the wider team at 2024 Young Breeder National Championships
National and World Championship competitions include the assessment of conformation and athleticism traits, presentation of horses in hand and a multiple choice theory test. A side competition at World Championships is the turnout, as a team, of a horse and its formal presentation to the judges.
A group of 21 young people from all around the country completed further training and assessment ahead of World Championship team selection 2024 following the National Championships. They attended three training days at Kilconnell Stud, Derryglen Stud and Hughes Horse Stud which incorporated instruction and assessment relating to the disciplines of assessing conformation traits, assessing athleticism traits, presenting a horse in hand, and a multiple choice theory test covering a variety of topics.
Left to right: Gillian Burke, Eileen Coleman, Michelle Dunne, Maria Cairns, Aimee Walsh, Sarah Kavanagh, Ella Tighe, Edward Hennessy, Caoimhe Healy, Robert Deegan, Emer O’Donnell, Lillian Lynch, Ben Kavanagh, Katie O’Donnell, Hazel McInerney, Ciara Hanley, Conor Fitzpatrick and Katie Peate (Colin Doyle absent)
The team chosen to travel to Stutteri Ask to participate in the 2024 International Young Breeders World Breeding Federation for Sport Horses World Championships, hosted by the Danish Warmblood Society, are photographed below.
Left to right: Sarah Kavanagh, Edward Hennessy, Colin Doyle, (Damien Griffin, Lissyegan Stables – training host), Gillian Burke, Ben Kavanagh, Maria Cairns, and Caoimhe Healy
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Young Breeders pictured at Hughes Horse Stud Co. Kilkenny (left) and Belmont House Stud Co. Offaly(right) above
