Speakers at Tuesday’s meeting in Gort spoke of the feeling in the west that their region and their traditional horse ways were being unfairly tarnished and increasingly demonised as new rules and regulations grow.

“There’s a snob element towards us in the west. We are looked down on by both the Government and the higher end of the horse market, that’s a fact,” claimed Arthur Judge from Ballinasloe.

“People are terrified with all these new rules, ranging from registering your premises if you keep even just one donkey to having DNA tests and passports, you name it. Particularly the older person keeping horses for generations, terrified, it’s just too much,” said Judge.

The Ballinasloe man continued: “A cull is what’s needed. I’m better represented with Horsecare Ireland than Horse Sport Ireland. Horsecare Ireland understands that costs are a big issue. Like many other people, I have some horses that would need to be disposed of but I’m not going to give them away for nothing as they cost me all along the line.

“The Government should introduce a scheme whereby you get a couple of hundred euros for each one disposed of through it. The fact that we held onto our horses shows that we are not the ones responsible for the beef/horsemeat problem.

“On the passport issue, there should be an amnesty introduced, like the way the Government introduced the gun amnesty, whereby you could turn in unlicensed shotguns with no fear of fines or prosecution. There should also be a passport discount deal for people needing multiple passports,” he said.

Some 600 people have reportedly joined Galway’s Horsecare Ireland lobby group, which is about to set itself up as a limited company.

Represented

Spokesperson John Martin Griffin said the group had met with Agriculture Minister Simon Coveney, as well as Professor Pat Wall and Damian McDonald of Horse Sport Ireland. A delegation also met the IFA and will be represented at an upcoming Oireachtas meeting.

Griffin told The Irish Field: “There’s a real gap between the government and the ordinary horse owner and breeder in the West and it’s growing all the time.

“Our members feel a disconnect with what’s happening and are very disgruntled on the lack of progress on the key issues in the industry.

“There are approximately 124,000 horses in the sport horse sector in Ireland and of these, a small minority of around 4,000 fall into the welfare-compromised bracket. Lame and thin horses attract a lot of negative attention but at the same time, there’s never any attention given to the lame and thin cattle and sheep in fields around the country, what about those?

“We have 600 members now whom we are giving a voice to and we are about to form into a new company next week.”

With thousands of horses without a market, Horsecare Ireland is in favour of what Griffin called a ‘selection/de-selection programme’.

“Nobody likes the word cull, but we all have some horses that there’s no market for and no homes for either. A scheme should be introduced by the Government whereby we grade our horses ourselves, you select the ones you know you can keep or sell and de-select the others and these would enter a Government-backed disposal scheme,’’ said Griffin.