| Color: blk/br Height: 16.0
RID 5990
The following extract came from the IDHS(GB) Newsletter of February1982
“It would be difficult to argue against the opinion that the most successful and influential dam has been Enniskeane Countess - the dam of Kildalton Countess.
She was bought in the early 1960s by Billy Cotter as a two year old for £35.10 shillings, which included the delivery charge! Her dam died when she was only 6 weeks old, and although bottle fed for a time, she would not take hand feed from her owner, consequently she spent her first winter out on the mountains, on her own, surviving unaided. She was broken to farm work in the autumn of her third year, and worked for the next eighteen years. When she was first shown, she had to be ridden to the venue or taken in a cattle truck, this was her introduction to jumping - as the truck had no ramp, the mare had to jump into it from the ground, and then simply jumped out on arrival at her destination.
In 1967 the Department of Agriculture and the Royal Dublin Society, invited fifteen selected mares to the Dublin Horse Show, to revive a class that had lapsed for forty two years. Enniskeane Countess was one of the mares invited, and she went on to win the Championship. Furthermore she was the only mare in Ireland to be invited to attend Ballsbridge on three occasions.
Billy’s first advice when buying a mare is ‘Start at the ground and study the background.’ In successfully practising this theory, he has proved that the debate on whether an Irish Draught is a ‘breed’ or a ‘type’ will continue, in fact it may never be resolved. However, he has also provided the evidence to show that it is at least possible to breed a type - The Irish Draught”.
Enniskeane Countess produced three RID colts Enniskeane Pride 1976, Enniskeane Count 1977, Enniskeane Prince 1979. Dan managed to find some extra information -Enniskeane Count is shown on the record as a colt, but he is also attributed with some Dressage Ireland points. Alas I have no further information at this time about him. Her first four progeny were fillies, her second, Kildalton Countess, being the only one by an RID stallion.
DMc
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