reland is renowned for breeding and producing some of the world’s greatest event horses. But some may find the process of visiting Ireland to find an event horse a daunting task.
Now with the Monart Sale you are able to visit one location, look at a variety of horses and know that they were all selected by a panel of four-star riders — and vetted by the Irish Olympic team vet.
The Monart Sale, founded by Niall Griffin and Polly Jackson, was held for the first time in 2010 and was the first of its kind in Ireland. Niall has represented Ireland in numerous Olympics, Worlds and European Championships and Polly has also represented Great Britain in the Europeans and has ridden at numerous four-star events worldwide. Together they embodied the wealth of knowledge needed to make the Monart Sale the unique and successful sale it is today. It is the first and only sale run by riders for riders.
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Having yards in both the UK and Ireland has given them insight and a better understanding of not only how UK and overseas riders feel about coming to Ireland to buy event horses, but also about how producers and breeders in Ireland feel about selling their horses. The end result was to put together a sale that made both sides happy and confident about the outcome.
The sale is comprised of a panel of four professional riders who have all sourced, produced and ridden to four-star level. This panel was put together with the belief that in order to know what a top level prospect looks like, you need to have gone through the process of buying and producing first hand. Our panel consists of Clayton Fredericks (AUS), Bill Levett (AUS), Sue Shortt (IRE) and Polly Jackson (GBR).
Along with these riders is the Irish Olympic showjumping and eventing team vet Marcus Swail, who puts each candidate through a five-stage vetting (including X-rays). This process allows the buyers to be assured that these horses have been thoroughly looked over and that they are seeing the best of what Ireland has to offer. It also gives the breeders and producers a sense of satisfaction knowing their horses were of a high enough quality to be selected for the sale.
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Monart also runs a series of events up to the CIC** level and so encompasses every facility needed to properly see and try the sale horses. After all the viewing has been completed, the action is then held at the five-star Monart Spa, which is on the same grounds as the sale venue.
In its fourth year running the Monart Sale has never had such a quality selection of horses for buyers to look at. The response from previous years is that the Monart Sale is leading the way in relation to performance of its graduates and value for money.
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