EVENTING Ireland chairman Niki Potterton has expressed concerns about the treatment of owners in the High Performance system, as well as HSI’s new tender for HP services.

“I don’t see who would apply,” he said. “You’re trying to build a team spirit for one of the biggest competitions in the world but how can you do that? You need time to build a programme and horse power - and try to keep owners engaged.

“There’s a lot of very disgruntled owners after the Europeans. There was no letter from HSI to say thanks very much for your horse and now they’re not even asking owners for an input on the HP tender. Owners are the ones who pay the bills, so surely they should be part of the high performance plan for the future.

“With regard to what was stated by HSI last week about HP funding, we agreed in principal to us managing the funds going directly to owners, but we wanted to see a HP programme first so we could sell it to them - but we haven’t seen that. We have a meeting in November and hopefully there will be more clarity then.

One of the disgruntled owners Potterton referred to is Gerry Leahy, owner of Ian Cassells’ European Silver medal-winning ride Millridge Atlantis. He recently wrote to the CEO of Sport Ireland, Dr Úna May, to voice his concerns.

“Two days before the team left for the Europeans I was told by another owner there was no travel bursary for horses or athletes,” he wrote.

“The direct consequence of this was to place the three Irish-based competitors at a material disadvantage to their three England-based team mates, due to the huge costs of post-Brexit requirements, ferries etc. Such unequal treatment would not be acceptable in any other sport.

“HSI is in receipt of substantial taxpayer funding to fund a HP Programme. In the four years since representing Ireland internationally, my horse or rider have never received training or a single cent towards training or coaching outside on-site warm up at the Championships.

“My contention is that ‘programme’ implies targets, schedules, performance criteria and there were none of these. It’s also my contention that claiming taxpayer funds from Sport Ireland under the guise of a High Performance Programme is open to serious question.”

Both current HP managers for eventing, Dag Albert (seniors) and Sue Shortt (youth) intend to reapply under the tender with Albert saying: “We’ve really been getting to somewhere lately, we have the horse power and we’ve got a big pool of experienced riders so there is a lot to be optimistic about.”