THE Traditional Irish Horse Association (TIHA) got in early staking a claim this week for a 50% share of the €160,000 sport horse breeding fund announced at a Budget 2017 briefing by Minister for Agriculture Michael Creed last Wednesday, October 12th.
The story in last week’s The Irish Field (A61) sparked TIHA to apply to Horse Sport Ireland in writing last Monday morning. Speaking to The Irish Field yesterday, TIHA secretary Joan Bateman, said the Association asked for €80,000 to kick start their show jumping and eventing development programmes.
“We have two development plans, one for show jumping and one for eventing. We were asked before to produce documents, which we did, and we were told that there was no funding available.
“We applied to Alison Corbally in Horse Sport Ireland by email on Monday after seeing the story and requested if she wanted any formal documentation. The application as of this morning (Friday) has not been acknowledged,” Bateman said.
The TIHA development programmes, which include a colt retention scheme, an embryo transfer project for top young mares and a plan to repatriate high performing mares sold abroad, were previously detailed in this publication.
A fully costed submission was made to Horse Sport Ireland earlier this year detailing the breed development programmes. At the time, TIHA were asking HSI to commit to five years funding but were informed there was no funding available.
The Department of Agriculture said last week that the additional €160,000 for Horse Sport Ireland will be used to assist with the implementation of aspects of the Reaching New Heights report.
R1.2 of Reaching New Heights, which was published in March 2015, stated: “Develop individual breeding strategies to produce both show jumping and eventing horses, which are internationally benchmarked and establish a development programme for the traditionally bred horse.”
When contacted yeterday, HSI director of breeding Alison Corbally said: “I received the TIHA e-mail. It will go to the breeding sub board of HSI for further consideration.”
Corbally said she has no update as to where the funding is going yet.
Butler win
MEATH’S Alexander Butler guided Hallowberry Cruz (ISH) (TIH) to victory in the two-star 1.45m world ranking class in Oliva, Spain yesterday afternoon. The 10-year-old stallion by Cruising, who is owned by Caroline Byrne, was the fastest clear round in 66.64 seconds, picking up €6,150 for the victory. Anthony Condon finished in fifth place with Balzac, clear in 70.02.