Anyone have experience with Oldenburgs and/or Irish sport horses?

I've ridden a couple horses of both the breeds you're talking about and I've enjoyed my time on both of them.

I leased an Oldenburg for quite a while and he was a joy to ride. Occasionally a little hot, but overall very willing and a real "trier". The Irish horses I've ridden have all been pretty intelligent and also very, very willing as well. They all really seemed to want to do things right, but they're also more apt to be a little more like, "Uh, are you sure we're going to do THAT?" I rode in a clinic once with Eric Horgan and a friend of mine was on an Irish horse and the horse kept getting put off and stopping, but it was always a pretty honest thing where he realized the rider wasn't sure what she wanted. Eric Horgan just said, "You know, you can always tell when an Irish horse is going to stop far sooner than you can tell for any other breed I've worked with."

Overall, I've enjoyed working with both breeds, so I think a cross of them would be pretty awesome to work with. All horses are individuals though, so just keep that in mind when you go look at this horse in particular.

I have been fortunate enough to be around a lot of Oldenburgs. But, that can basically mean any breed. You should really look into your horses bloodlines. I have known Oldenburgs that were the traditional German bred, which were very stout, big boned, and very sturdy. While I have also seen Oldenburgs that were a whole bunch of random horse breeds thrown together. Like thoroughbred, shire, quarter horse. This is because the Oldenburg registry, at least in America, is very lenient about the horses that are accepted into it. Best of luck.

I'm currently training an oldenburg cross who I love to death! She's once of the sweetest and smartest horses I have come across. Just an absolute cuddle bug. The ones I have been around have also been super talented. If you had the chance to be around one, I would defiantly recommend it!

Tika, what you are referring to is now known as the 'Alt Oldenburg' where as the German's are now developing the new 'modern' sport horse. I myself am not a fan of the dainty sugar creatures and prefer a bit of meat to grip between my knees.

Oldenburgs as a whole don't have 'character' traits from the breed, so much as they have traits from the bloodlines.

If you know the bloodlines of the horse, that will help.

I owned an Oldenberg called Do It Again from the Donnerhall lines. We call them Donnerblud (translates to Donnerstupid) because the D line, although it is fantastic movement, is your typical dumb-blood and unless you get that work ethic from the word go, you will work every single step of the way. Didn't stop me buying another two though ;)

Irish Sporthorses are great and usually love to jump. The one I know of never refuses a jump and is a champ at fox hunting.