Irish hares..................

[Guest Magwitch]

Watched a few vid's on youtube of Irish hare coursing and to be honest they looked easier to catch than rabbits, is this the case?

[Guest ashwoodvale]

Thats because them hares you seen are in a closed in area and not on their home ground.

The Irish hare is a good test for a dog in the winter months if fit, you need a nippy type of running dog to get them, as most feilds over here are not that big.

They are closely related to the mountain hare of Scotland, but bigger and run stronger.

 

Frank.

your wrong there frank,they are a different species to hares across the water,irish hares are a serious test for any running dog,i have seen a few 4 minute plus courses

[spiderfly 111]

maybe the dogs are better over here lol

[Guest ashwoodvale]

Links below.

 

http://www.irishhare.org/

 

http://www.npws.ie/en/Biodiversity/Ireland...mals/IrishHare/

so i was right,spoke to a mate last night and he has coursed all 3 species and rates our hare on par with the brown from the uk

[bolio 51]

Here we go again eh?

In my experience the Irish hare is much nearer the brown in ability than the other type of mountain hare on the mainland. When I first went to the fens to course the brown hare I took dogs that were quite capable of taking Irish hares on pasture week after week but they struggled against the browns.

It would be interesting to see how Irish hares would fare on big land but both hares seem to have what it takes to survive on their respective habitat. The mainland mountain hares that I have been in amongst were of more value as confidence builders for young saplings.

Over the years myself and a number of Irish friends who spent a lot of time in Lincs coursing have all sought out good coursing strains from England and they've managed just fine at the bread and butter coursing in the smaller fields over here too.