AMBITIOUS plans to transform the €700m Irish sport horse industry from the grassroots level up, were outlined this week by interim chairman of Horse Sport Ireland, Jim Beecher.

In an interview with The Irish Field this week (see full interview on A59), Beecher laid out an ambitious vision for the future of the industry which currently supports some 12,000 full-time jobs.

At the heart of the far-reaching plans is the creation of a new national circuit with €100,000 up for grabs every weekend of the year, open to all breeds and disciplines, worth an annual €5m.

This would effectively act as the bedrock for the creation of what Beecher termed would be a “a real sport horse industry”, creating a decent circuit for ordinary Irish owners, riders, breeders and producers who are currently getting little, if anything, back from being involved in horses and ponies at the small level.

Jim Beecher said: “It would be a game-changer. It would change attitudes overnight. We must be ambitious for our sector. If we are not, who else will be? It is up to us.”

The interim chairman of HSI added: “My primary interest at the end of the day is the ordinary breeder, the ordinary owner, the ordinary rider. If we can take reasonable care of them, the grassroots, everything else will just sprout away from that. There are owners out there who are putting their hard-earned money into this (industry); there are riders out there who are riding for nothing, we have got to give them a reason to be in our industry.”

It was revealed that Horse Sport Ireland staff are currently working hard, in conjunction with others such as the Barry O’Connor/Economist Jim Power group, UCD and the Reaching New Heights group, on putting together a blueprint document for the industry which they aim to have on the desk of the officials of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, headed by Minister Michael Creed, by early summer, ahead of senior civil servants putting together next year’s Budget.

Behind the scenes, financial support is also being gathered from key business elements and national and international sponsors.

FINANCIAL PLAN

Seeking to put together a figure described as a minimum of €10m, rising to €20m over a five-year timeframe, Jim Beecher said of the plan: “It will be hung on economics and value for money.”

The East Cork native is drawing on his 38-year career in the Department of Agriculture to spearhead the blueprint plan to effectively pave the way for substantial public funding to be committed to the sport horse sector.

Of the upcoming Indecon Review into Horse Sport Ireland, Beecher said that he had “no doubt that Indecon would recommend a significant amount of change,” describing that as “inevitable” when you are dealing with a structure that is 10 years old.

Admitting that HSI had “under achieved” to date, Beecher said that nevertheless, the organisation had done a lot of good for the diverse elements of the Irish sport horse industry and he strongly supported HSI staff describing them as as “very committed, hard-working people, who are not here for the money”.

The key elements of the transformative plans Jim Beecher outlined are:

KEY PLAYERS

Here’s some of key players in the unfolding future direction of the Irish sport horse industry

(Note: It was not possible to include all those involved due to space)