Naming and Defining a Breed – The Irish Cob

My name is Evelyn Flynn, formerly Evelyn Murphy, and this is a personal account of my introduction to an extraordinary, unnamed horse breed in the early 1980s that led me to spend over ten years seeking to have the breed officially recognised in Ireland.

From 1981, I operated a horse trekking stables in North County Dublin in Ireland. Because most riders who came to the stables to go trekking were inexperienced and often nervous adults, I needed safe, hardy, kind and resilient horses that were cob sized (14hh to 15.3hh). So, I asked the stables horse supplier, Larry O’Connor (aka ‘Smithfield Larry’), if he could provide horses that would meet this criterion. One day, Larry called me and said he would drop off a cob to try out that he believed would suit the criteria for my trekking stables. I will always remember that day when Larry’s lorry drove into the yard. He pulled down the ramp of his lorry to reveal a very hairy-legged, dark bay chunk of a cob gelding that looked at me with a kind expression. I said, ‘But these cobs would not be the choice of riding stables’ and Larry replied, ‘Well, riding schools have discovered that there is no better or safer horse for their job’.

So, although I was smitten with the hairy-legged cob that came into my yard that day, I was uncertain about how my trekking clientele would receive him because he was an unrecorded and unrecognised breed that didn’t even have a breed name. However, I soon had an order in with Larry for more!

Unfortunately, due to a steep rise in commercial stable insurance, the trekking stables were forced to close in 1986. However, I continued my involvement with horses through the rest of the 1980s and into the 1990s by dabbling in horse breeding and trading, and my choice of horse breed choice was, of course, the unnamed Traditional Cob breed in Ireland developed by Irish Travellers that was to smitten me (and eventually the world) forever.

Naming and defining the breed (mid-1990s)

Because of the nomadic lifestyle of Irish Travellers and their prolific Traditional Cobs, the Irish countryside and cities were full of Ireland's unrecorded nomadic Traditional Cobs. As a result, the horse fairs in Ireland were filled with Traditional Cobs, which were predominantly piebald and therefore referred to by Irish Travellers as the Piebald. So, because I was fascinated with this unique and captivating unnamed breed, from the late 1980s to the early 1990’s I spent my time at horse fairs in Ireland (particularly the monthly Smithfield Horse Fair in Dublin and the annual Ballinasloe Horse Fair in Galway) and also at Irish Traveller camps where I studied the breed and took notes. However, from the beginning of the 1990s, I witnessed non-traveller horse traders from the United Kingdom and Holland coming to Ireland and filling their trucks, lorries and trailers with Traditional Cobs that they bought either at Irish horse fairs or directly from Irish Travellers. Because there was no studbook or register for Ireland’s unnamed Traditional Cob (and because Europe did not yet have an equine passport system), lorry loads of Ireland’s Traditional Cobs were exported from Ireland every week with no record of them ever having been in Ireland (or even having ever exited).

It is for this reason that I decided I needed to initiate the founding of a studbook for Ireland’s Traditional Cob. However, because a studbook is a breed standard with a breed name and with at least one qualified judge that can judge animals to conform to that breed standard, it meant that for me to initiate the founding of a studbook for Ireland’s Traditional Cob I would have to write the breed standard and therefore be the one qualified judge required to judge animals to conform to that breed standard (so that the studbook could be founded). So, I studied the breed intensively in the early 1990s until I was satisfied that I could define the characteristics of this unique breed and document them in a breed standard. Having documented the characteristics of the breed in a breed standard (breed description), I then had an artist draw their impression of the breed from my breed description, and based on the artist’s impression, I was satisfied that I had captured the essence of the breed in a breed standard. Now it was time to give a name to Ireland’s Traditional Cob. So, because Ireland is the country of origin of the breed, I documented the name Irish Cob by naming the breed standard the Irish Cob Breed Standard, and the name of the studbook would therefore be the Irish Cob Studbook.

Although I could have founded the Irish Cob Studbook on my own as an independent registry, because Ireland’s unnamed and unrecorded Traditional Cob had become one of the most sought-after horse breeds in Europe from the early 1990s, I aimed to have the Irish Cob officially recognised in Ireland as a national treasure and a valuable part of Ireland’s heritage and culture. However, the only way this could be done was to have the Irish Cob Studbook (and therefore the Irish Cob Breed Standard) officially recognised. In June 1996, I therefore made a call to the Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (DAFF) in Ireland, and I got to speak with Mr Brian Walsh. I told Mr Walsh about all the years of work and research I had done to write the Irish Cob Breed Standard and create the Irish Cob Studbook, and I explained to him why it was important to have the Irish Cob Studbook officially recognised in Ireland. Mr Walsh then explained that because passports are issued in respect of official (approved) studbooks, I would need to establish a body that could apply for registration as Keeper of the Irish Cob Studbook.

Mr Walsh suggested that I put my proposal in writing to the Department, which I did in a letter dated 28 June 1996. On 18 July 1996, Mr Walsh therefore issued a letter to me in which he stated, ‘I wish to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 28 June 1996 concerning your proposal to establish a body and to apply to this Department for registration as Keeper of the Irish Cob Studbook’.

Because I had never before heard about horse passports, my idea to seek to have the Irish Cob Studbook made an official studbook was even more important for the breed than I had previously realised.

Official breed naming day: 18 July 1996

What I achieved on the 18 of July 1996 was to have an officially documented ‘naming day’ for Ireland's Traditional Cob, as well as an officially documented ‘recognition day’ for the Irish Cob Studbook (and therefore for the Irish Cob Breed Standard).

Application submitted in August 1996

In August 1996, I submitted an application to the Department seeking registration of my proposed Society, which I had named the Irish Cob Society, as Keeper of the Irish Cob Studbook. On 21 November 1996, the Department issued a letter acknowledging my application: 'I wish to acknowledge receipt of your application for registration as Keeper of the Irish Cob Studbook’.

The Irish Cob Studbook

On 16 July 1998, the Department official Mr Patrick Cosgrave issued a letter to The Irish Cob Society (ICS) advising me that he was to ‘grant approval to the Irish Cob Society for the purpose of maintaining the Irish Cob Studbook’.

Studbook of the origin of the breed

The Department official, Mr Patrick Cosgrave, also issued a letter to the Commission of the European Union on 16 July 1998 in which he notified the Commission that The Irish Cob Society (ICS) was regarded as the body which maintains the studbook of the origin of the breed (the mother Irish Cob Studbook).

THE TRADITIONAL IRISH COB IS IN DANGER

Although the first ever Traditional Cob studbook was the Irish Cob Studbook which was officially recognised in Ireland on 18 July 1996, it was not until on 16 July 1998 that the Irish Cob Society (ICS) was approved to maintain it as the mother Irish Cob Studbook (the studbook of original of the breed). The mother Irish Cob Studbook was founded to preserve and protect the original Traditional Cob of Ireland (Traditional Irish Cob), and subsequently, daughter Irish Cob Studbooks were also founded in other EU Member States to preserve and protect the original Traditional Cob of Ireland (Traditional Irish Cob).

Sadly, the original Traditional Cob of Ireland (Traditional Irish Cob) is on course to becoming extinct. The small number left in Ireland (which are most kept be a small number of discerning breeders who do not want to see the original Irish Cob disappear) are mostly in their teens and if they are not protected and used to breed a new generation of Traditional Irish Cobs, that will be the end of iconic Irish breed of horse that stole the heart of the world in the 1990s and that was the founder breed for the Gypsy Cob.

The official EU & UK Traditional Cob studbooks do not protect the Irish Cob or the Gypsy Cob

 (a) The Irish Cob Studbooks (EU)

Although a small number (minority) of Gypsy Cobs were registered in the mother Irish Cob Studbook in Ireland from 1998 and subsequently in the daughter Irish Cob Studbooks in other EU Member States, they were not placed high in Irish Cob Studbook showing classes because they were in the wrong Traditional Cob breed type class. However, because there is no studbook in the EU (which includes Ireland) or UK (which includes England) for the Gypsy Cob, Gypsy Cobs are becoming the majority Traditional Cob breed type being registered in the Irish Cob Studbooks throughout the EU. Gypsy Cobs are now beating Irish Cobs in Irish Cob showing classes held by the daughter Irish Cob Studbooks in the EU!

The sad irony is that while the original Traditional Cob of Ireland (Traditional Irish Cob) is being pushed out of existence in its own Irish Cob studbooks in the EU, the Traditional Cob of the UK (Gypsy Cob) is becoming an Irish Cob by name throughout the EU. This is not only damaging to both the Irish Cob and Gypsy Cob, but it has caused Irish and English Traditional Cob ‘branding’ confusion.

(b) The Traditional Gypsy Cob Studbook (UK)

When the first Traditional Gypsy Cob Studbook was first established in England in 2005, the original Traditional Cob of Ireland (Traditional Irish Cob) was by far the majority Traditional Cob breed type registered in that studbook, and it is for this reason that the first breed standard written for the Traditional Gypsy Cob Studbook was like the Irish Cob Breed Standard. Because hundreds of Traditional Irish Cobs were exported from Ireland to England and registered in the Traditional Gypsy Cob Studbook without having been registered in the Irish Cob Studbook in Ireland, those Traditional Irish Cobs were lost to Ireland as they became Traditional Gypsy Cobs (Gypsy Cobs) by name throughout the UK. Although the breed standard for the Traditional Gypsy Cob Studbook has been modified and is no longer as much like the Irish Cob Breed Standard as it used to be, the Traditional Gypsy Cob Studbook breed standard does not describe the original Gypsy Cob ('true' Traditional Gypsy Cob) that was bred in England by the Romani people who used the original Traditional Cob of Ireland (Traditional Irish Cob) as the foundation breed for their original Gypsy Cob (Traditional Gypsy Cob). The Traditional Gypsy Cob Studbook breed standard can therefore be viewed as a breed standard for a new Traditional Cob breed type.

(c) The Dutch Tinker Studbook (EU)

From the early 1990s countless original Traditional Cobs of Ireland (Traditional Irish Cobs) were exported from Ireland to Holland and Germany and because the Dutch authorities did not know that the Irish Cob Society (ICS) was approved in 1998 to maintain the mother Irish Cob Studbook in Ireland, another mother studbook for Ireland’s Traditional Cob was approved in Holland in 1999. Thousands of Ireland’s Traditional Cobs (Irish Cobs) and their progeny have been lost to the Tinker Studbook in Holland, which would not have been approved if the Dutch authorities had known that the Irish Cob Society (ICS) was approved in 1998 to maintain the mother Irish Cob Studbook in Ireland.