Thank you

Madam,

On our return from the Pony European Championships in Vilhelmsborg, Denmark, the Irish pony eventing squad would like to take this opportunity to express their immense gratitude to our many wonderful sponsors - Gain Horse Feeds, Horse Sport Ireland, Horseware, Aidan Keogh of Tredstep, Charles Owen, Dubarry, Berney’s Saddlery, TRM, Love Haylage, Comfybed and Sweetspot Sourcing, Naas.

We would also like to thank Joan Keogh of Spruce Lodge and Abbottstown for the use of their top class facilities for our training days, Brendan Hackett for his very inspirational talk, and Claire-Maria Campbell for our physiotherapy sessions.

Thanks also to the managers of Goffs and Tattersalls, who facilitated us to load and unload our ponies and gear at the start and end of the trip.

A massive thank you to our chef d’equipe, Becky Cullen, our dressage trainer, Sue Smallman, our show jumping trainer Tom Doherty, and our team vet Con Kennedy. Thanks also to our two dedicated and highly efficient grooms, Emily Taylor and Fraser Kirby and also to our driver, Stuart from George Mullins Transport.

They all worked so hard and made our trip such a positive, well-run and enjoyable experience. The Irish dressage riders were also very helpful in washing down our ponies after the cross-country phase.

Last but not least, thank you to all our parents, families, friends and owners who not only travelled from far and wide to help and support us throughout the competition, but who made the European experience possible for each of us - we couldn’t have done it without you!

Yours etc,

Hannah Adams, Sophie Foyle, Zara Nelson, Jennifer Kuehnle, Timmy Love and Jim Tyrell.

Showcase we need

Madam,

For the second year running Horse Sport Ireland has kindly put together a series of qualifiers for potential event and show jumping foals, culminating in a final of selected foals at Cavan Equestrian Centre. HSI also sponsored a similar class organised by Roscommon/Mayo Breeders Group at Roscommon Show.

As a participant, I would like to congratulate both HSI and the show organisers on these initiatives. For breeders trying to breed decent stock but at the same time keeping performance in mind it is exactly the showcase we require.

I don’t need to tell anyone breeding on the traditional lines of thoroughbred/Irish Draught how difficult it is to sell these sport horse foals, no matter how good or how correct they are. And if it’s a filly foal, well, we just take the loss.

These classes give recognition and a small reward for breeding foals with enough quality to be aimed at the sport of eventing and they allow us to put a little more “value” on our foals.

The truth is that prize money of a couple of hundred euros may be the difference between taking a loss on our breeding venture for the year or maybe just about breaking even. Either way, it allows us to carry on with some confidence that we are doing something right.

Honest feedback and opinion given now to HSI will be very important to the success of this class in the future and hopefully they will seek it. It is not the aim to criticise, but to try to improve and give impetus to a new concept which should bring about benefits to the breeders of event-type foals, which is badly needed.

Well done to all involved.

Yours etc,

Mary O’Halloran,

Nenagh, Co Tipperary.

Genetic stew

Madam,

I wish to address the gross misrepresentation of my opinion (Have Your Say, The Irish Field, August 13th) in the headline and text of Conor Sheridan’s letter last week.

To respond that my praises both of my Carlovian neighbour Ronan Byrne in breeding a gold medal winner and also the outstanding successes of the truly Irish horses Ardcolum Duke and Cisero were somehow to ‘talk down’ Irish breeding let alone Irish breeders, were exactly the mistakes against which I warned in my article.

I also want to correct that Cisero is absolutely 100% TIH (Traditional Irish Horse), even if this is not yet stated on his Capalloir page.

I do not criticise Mr Sheridan’s breeding ambitions, any more than he has any right to dictate mine.

What both my article and his reply only emphasise is the need within the Irish Sport Horse (ISH) breed code to have clear identification and managementof the different breeds (genetics) within it.

While under the EU breed codes “anything goes” for a sport horse, the Dutch studbook, which many advocate as a horse breeding icon, sets the precedent for separate sections. If we do not properly and carefully identify, select, manage and conserve a nucleus of our distinctly Irish breeds of horse within the ISH breed code, then the unique selling points of our foundation formula will increasingly be lost in the genetic stew.

And when it is gone, it will be really gone.

Yours etc,

John Watson,

Ballybolger Stud,

Co Carlow.