Irish Standard Bred Trotter
The distinguishing characteristic of a Trotter is its ability to maintain a trotting gait where the diagonally opposite legs move in unison at full flight without breaking into a gallop. The Trotter Horse should be a functionally correct model of balanced proportions that is conducive to successful performance at international level in harness racing disciplines.
The horse should move correctly, be light-footed, balanced, and supple with good self-carriage and impulsion from the hindquarters. The horse should have a good temperament, be driveable/ride able, intelligent, and willing to perform. Ideally a Trotter horse should stand between 158cms (15.2hh) and a maximum of 170cms (16.3hh) at maturity. Trotters are generally solid colours in the main, bay, brown, chestnut, black and grey.
There are two sections in the Trotter Studbook:
To be eligible to be registered in the Trotteur Francais Class a horse must:
Be descended from parents registered in the Trotteur Francais Stud Book and approved for breeding purposes.
The sire must be approved for Trotteur Français production subject to the terms and conditions established for that stud book.
The dam must be registered in the Trotteur Français studbook, and must be confirmed, approved for breeding in the Trotteur Français breed and not be suspended from such breeding for the year of covering in question.
Having received a name attributed by the Société d’Encouragement à l’Elevage du Cheval Français (SECF) with a maximum of 18 characters including spaces, chosen from among those suggested by the breeder or the owner of the foal.
Equines entered in this section will be denoted with TF IRE
Horses not eligible to be registered in the Trotteur Francais Class will be registered in the Irish Trotter Class.
The breeding objective is to produce a performance horse that is sound, athletic with good paces, good temperament and capable of performing at the highest international level.
To produce a horse that can qualify for racing as a 2- year-old or a 3-year-old in the standard qualifying times in force by the IHRA or other such international trotting racing organisation at the specific time of qualifying.
The studbook also aims to potential future broodmares and stallions that can enter the breeding program following their racing career. The selection process will include in the short term the purchase of broodmares and leasing arrangements for stallions through the Le Trot program from France from known and proven bloodlines until such time as sufficient stocks of broodmares are built up endogenously in Ireland.
