AS the Irish Sport Horse industry continues to play its part in the national effort to stem coronavirus, chairman of Horse Sport Ireland Joe Reynolds urged businesses and individuals to be ready to go when the crisis passes.

“There is light at the end of the tunnel – Covid-19 will pass and we, as an industry, need to be ready to start when the curtain goes up,” urged the successful Co Kildare-based businessman.

As a lifelong sheep and cattle farmer as well as a passionate horseman, Joe Reynolds, along with all in Horse Sport Ireland, is very keen to see the Irish Sport Horse industry – which provides 15,000 full-time jobs - given the political and economic recognition it deserves.

“Our Sport Horse industry is a major employer. It is as big as Google, Facebook and Apple combined but it is not seen for what it is by all our stakeholders. It is obvious we don’t have the clout of even one of the above. In farming terms, Ireland’s equestrian industry is twice the size of the sheep sector. The Irish Sport Horse industry has a similar economic footprint as the thoroughbred business.

“Our Strategic Plan is focused on ensuring that the potential of the sector can be realised and central to delivering this will be redefining the financial model to support the industry,” said Reynolds.

Central to that will be “driving efficiencies and developing a more sustainable funding model with less reliance on exchequer funding as a proportion of the total revenues generated. This can be achieved through maximising sponsorship, developing new service offerings, leveraging new technologies, promoting philanthropic investment,” he said.

With his family’s fuel supply company, Reynolds Logistics, employing 300 people in Ireland and the UK, he, like so many others, has experienced the sharp business downturn firsthand. “In truth with difficulty all the scenario planning and risk analysis couldn’t have come up with this. The good news is that Covid-19 will pass and we will return to some sort of normality. Government announcements of support for industry in general have been swift but it sometimes takes a little longer for the detail to emerge.”

Stimulate recovery

Reynolds said: “HSI has transformed how we engage with the sector and our mission is clear: ‘To lead the sector and enable it to fulfil its potential’. Key to achieving this will be to leading a cultural change across every sector of our industry and to focus on the sport horse business.

“The current pandemic has resulted in unprecedented disruption to the global equestrian sector, however, it will come to an end and our focus is on restarting the industry post the current restrictions and how we can stimulate the recovery. The Olympic Games in 2021 will act as a beacon of hope for the sporting world and our mission remains on delivering medal success in Tokyo.”

Saying “there is always room for improvement”, the HSI chairman said his role could be both time-consuming and stressful at times. “It can be hard to get people to see the big picture,” he commented.

“It (HSI) has become more open and transparent, I never duck a question and The Irish Field have questions in every week that are answered. The dynamic between media like you and organisations like us has changed, probably because the public are more demanding. As a general comment, there is a need for more openness from all bodies that receive state funds.”

Read the full Joe Reynolds interview on pages 58-59.

‘We all need to do our best to regain momentum’

SPORT horse agent Barry O’Connor said the Irish industry will have to unite in order to regain the momentum lost during this pandemic. “Without the sport for the horse, the need falls away dramatically and everything that comes behind it suffers as well. The cancellation of all equestrian events has affected, firstly, the riders and immediate staff, followed by event organisers and centre owners,” O’Connor commented.

“The lesson we must learn from this is that the sport comes first in its many forms and we are all connected through it. What is good for the sport is good for all attached to the sector. When we exit these few months, we all need to do our bit to help regain the momentum lost.

Support

“We could all start helping out locally first with supporting your local venues and participating, or even helping to organise and run local events. Bigger sector companies could try, if possible, to continue sponsorship and encourage a strong second half of the season in the number of the events they support.”

He added: “Once the sport starts in Europe and North America then this will create a need for horses, however we would be naive to think that it will be as strong as before until the world rights itself economically.

“There are things we can do to help and this would include having a good level and standard of competition at home through which it will help market and sell our horses. There will be some trade this year in Europe and we have to position ourselves to be ready to get as much of it as possible.”

See Barry O’Connor’s column on page 54.