THE equine courses run at the College of Agricultural, Food & Rural Enterprise’s Enniskillen campus held its 50th/25th anniversary dinner last Friday night in the Killyhevlin Hotel.

Leo Powell, editor of The Irish Field, chaired a panel of three alumni (David Brown, Amy Burke and John Sands) and cut the ‘birthday’ cake along with Seamus McAlinney, head of equine at the campus, and 89-year-old Maureen West whose late husband Harry, twice a Minister for Agriculture, was instrumental in the establishment of the College at its present site.

Unfortunately, there isn’t room here to reproduce all of Seamus McAlinney’s address but the main points were:

“This year sees the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) Enniskillen campus mark 50 years as an important part of the local farming and rural community.

“Since we opened in 1967 as the ‘Enniskillen Agricultural College’ our agriculture programmes have been delivered and developed over the years to meet the needs of local farmers. Around 2,000 young farmers have completed their studies at Enniskillen.”

Referring to ‘Equine Provision’, McAlinney continued: “It is 25 years since the college started delivering equine education in collaboration with Fermanagh College. Our first equine students graduated in 1998 and since then arround 800 have qualified with diplomas or degrees. We keep in touch with 435 of our ex-students through our alumni group and we believe that 94% are either directly employed in the equine industry or working with horses while they earn their living through other employment.

“We work hard to provide our equine students with a stimulating academic education while they benefit from hands-on experience working with a range of horses in our equine breeding, equitation, racing, farriery and livery units.”