More than 200 people from all sectors of the sport horse industry gathered in Trim, Co Meath, on Wednesday night to hear Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Simon Coveney pledge his support for the industry.

Organised in a workshop-style format that saw each of 27 groups give their opinion on four questions relating to sport horse breeding, production and marketing, the evening saw dozens of suggestions being offered as to how to improve the sport horse sector.

Minister Coveney told the crowd that he wanted the equine industry to emulate the success of the agri-food industry, which has recorded extraordinary success following the implementation of the Food Harvest 2020 strategy.

“If you have a strategy, you create an expectation, an excitement and a certainty that leads to a willingness to invest from existing and new players,” said the Minister.

“But if you’re drifting and everyone is doing something different, then the capacity to deliver something collectively for a sector and a country is simply not there.”

DNA-based databases, discussion groups and access to information were mentioned as key to the strategy for the sport horse industry.

“If your target is to produce the next top show jumper in Europe, then you need access to the information that will allow you to make decisions that will result in the correct offspring,” said the Minister. “Equally if you decide to produce for the riding school or equine tourism sector, you need information to breed accurately for that market. This strategy will mean that nobody makes decisions in the dark and hopes for the best, because all that does is breed mediocrity and it delivers offspring that nobody wants.”

Minister Coveney said he found it “totally unacceptable” and “incomprehensible” that sport horse breeders did not have access to a DNA database and breeding advice that are in use in the dairy, beef and sheep industries.

He added that the “two-tier system” of white and green passports needed to be fixed.

“We need to look at how we manage the studbook because any studbook is only as good as the stock in it and how much detail the owners provide,” the Minister told the crowd.

Among the many issues highlighted by those in attendance on the night were the over-supply of poor quality animals in the market and the damage low-grade animals were doing to the industry standard.

It was suggested that sales catalogues could be categorised so that foreign buyers could view a large number of similar horses, while it was also suggested that foals should be consigned to sales by professionals to increase returns.

Other speakers highlighted the lack of prize money in the sport and called for tax breaks for competition sponsors.

Several speakers called for tax breaks and other incentives to be applied to the sport horse industry that would encourage breeders to keep top mares and attract more investment in the industry. One speaker suggested there should be an incentive to take embryos from international-level mares before they were sold abroad. It was also suggested that Irish riders based abroad should be incentivised to compete at least one Irish-bred horse in order to showcase Irish breeding.

A number of people called for the sport horse industry to adopt tactics that have been successful in the thoroughbred sector, such as Irish Thoroughbred Marketing and the European Breeders Fund. A suggestion to introduce tax breaks for sport horse breeders received a round of applause on the night.

The need for enhanced training for horse breeders and producers, with a particular emphasis on the breaking and training of competition animals, was raised by a number of people, including Col Ned Campion.

The subject also featured strongly in the written notes collected in the aftermath of the meeting.

Speaking afterwards, Minister acknowledged that the sport horse industry had suffered as a result of not being under the remit of one government department.

“That split between two departments has resulted in a lack of focus in formulating a strong policy direction for the sector and that’s an issue myself and Leo Varadkar will need to talk about,” he said.

“I will try to support the sector financially but there are limitations to what I can do in my Department because I have to take money from other sectors to do it and that’s not an easy process. But I will try to spend money where it is warranted and where we can get a good dividend for it,” he pledged.

Three more public meetings are scheduled to take place in the next fortnight; on Thursday, April 3rd in Hotel Kilkenny, Kilkenny, on Friday, April 4th in the Carrigaline Court Hotel, Co Cork and on Tuesday, April 8th in The Lady Gregory, Gort, Co Galway. Plans are also underway to hold a meeting in Northern Ireland and another in the northwest in the coming weeks.

QUOTES FROM THE FLOOR

“The 1932 stallion licensing act prohibited stallions being kept after the age of two if they were not licensed. The license required the animal to be presented for inspection and the animal was not passed by the inspectors, it could not continue as a stallion. That act was revoked in 1987 but I would suggest that its reintroduction would do a lot to reduce the oversupply of horses”

– Col Ned Campion

“We have to address and remove the over-supply issue because at the moment the poor quality horses are taking away from good quality horses. Our better quality animals are being undervalued due to the reputation of the poor quality horses”

– From the floor

“If prize money for riders were improved, it would trickle right down the line to everyone including breeders. A lot of Irish riders are abroad because they can’t make a living here in Ireland. Prize money must be radically improved in order for the sport to survive”

– Robert Fagan

“We need to stop breeding from inferior stock. There should be a penalty for white book breeding where people want to get a passport for an animal without recording any pedigree for it.”

– From the floor

“We need a more comprehensive stallion testing programme. Ours is insufficient by international standards. The testing should include a competition element, like jumping in the studbook classes.”

– From the floor

“The RDS and Showjumping Ireland need to re-evaluate the young horse classes. Young horses are being rushed. There is a deficit of good producers of young horses.”

– Col Ned Campion

“This is a wonderful opportunity for people to express their views. In my opinion, we need better mares in this country. The majority of our mares are not good enough. That’s the single biggest scourge that’s holding us back. If that changes, it will change everything”

– Robert Splaine

“Even people within our own industry don’t know what CapallOIR is, so how can we expect people outside of Ireland to know what it is?”

– David Kirkpatrick

“There is enormous duplication in the structure of Horse Sport Ireland that needs to be addressed. There is duplication in the areas of IT and finance between HSI and SJI that a small industry like ours cannot afford. It is a structural deficit, not a reflection on the staff involved”

– Noel Cawley