FUELLING the stuff that horsepeople’s new year dreams are made of was the recent €10-€12 million sale of the Irish-bred Aga Khan winner MHS Going Global but, all dreams aside, the more routine sales returns from 2016 indicate that many Irish Sport Horse breeders and producers are not making money.
Anyone who applied Teagasc’s costs of production figures, outlined at their successful recent National Equine Conference in Kilkenny and reported in this newspaper, to many of the published sales returns over the last 12 month period can readily see that for themselves at a glance.
The state of play could effectively be described as a tale of two halves - show business for some and no business worth talking about for many others across our country.
Breeders rightly made their voices heard at the recent lively annual general meeting of the Irish Horse Board in Cork at which some of those present aired strong views and opinions, no doubt also echoed by the more silent majority nationwide.
Lashed from the floor was the fees and registration income payable - estimated to be in excess of €1.15m in 2015 – into Horse Sport Ireland.
No doubt both sides could well argue out the particular merits of their own viewpoints at length.
One side could point to registration streamlining, administrative cost savings on offices and phones - the other could highlight our national slide down the world rankings when it comes to breeding top show jumpers.
Arguments aside, the fact is that our national federation Horse Sport Ireland is the only European national federation currently controlling a studbook.
We are where we are but it’s more than valid to ask is this the very best possible system going forward?
Does it deliver for our breeders and does it deliver for the Irish Sport Horse industry as a whole?
The Indecon Review is currently examining the very structures and future formation of our national federation and it hardly takes a crystal ball to see that this major area needs close scrutiny.
Interesting too is the cross-border dimension to the whole thing - HSI is quite unique in that it is a 32-county body.
What then is the role – if any – of DARD and Sport NI in the Indecon Review - have these northern bodies been consulted as part of the process?
THE X FACTOR
Will the implications of the Brexit vote to leave the EU and the unique position of Northern Ireland - the majority of whom voted to remain within the EU - be taken into consideration at all?
The multiplier effect of every euro spent on the €700m sports horse industry in Ireland is undoubtedly greater than any other agricultural sector we have.
Take a look at the number of horseboxes on the move this weekend alone – no other livestock unit has as much money spent on it as the average sports horse, hunter or child’s pony when all costs are accounted for.
The Irish Sport Horse Industry is worth twice that of the entire Irish sheep sector (€300m) yet when would you see a scheme similar to the €25m Sheep Welfare Scheme launched recently being made available to those in the equine sector? You won’t.
What’s notable in Irish agricultural - heavyweight political champions - has always been absent on the national stage when it comes to the equestrian community.
We need just such a political champion.
– Isabel Hurley
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