A PHRASE that has become part of our everyday language is that of ‘a perfect storm’. While in its current form it has a very different meaning from the original understanding of the words, it has always struck me that there is absolutely nothing ‘perfect’ about it.

Nowadays it denotes a critical or disastrous situation created by a powerful concurrence of factors, and we actually do not wish for a perfect storm. I am using it because it is what describes the predicament we find ourselves in with regard to staffing in the breeding, racing and sport horse sectors. In the first two, about which I would know most, the problem is of a critical or serious nature.