ANY jangling nerves that the smashing sales which characterised trade at the country’s key auction house sport horse sales last year might get off to a slow start this week were quickly dispelled at Cavan on Wednesday.

Trade was booming throughout, returning a top lot of €21,000 while 11 lots hit the €10,000 and over mark. Hats off to Stuart Clarke and his hardworking team for getting the 2022 sales year off to an impressive start for the sport horse sector.

Wednesday’s trade proved a welcome shot in the arm for breeders, owners and producers and hopefully will stand as a good portent for the rest of the year.

Tapping into TAMS

For a considerable time now, we have highlighted in these pages the importance of channelling increased public funding and also making every available scheme eligible or adaptable for stakeholders in the Irish sport horse sector.

Take TAMS II - currently horse people can only apply for equine stocks and are shut out of other categories. Equine housing - or stabling to the rest of us - is not available under TAMS II and there is no welfare scheme for horses.

There are welfare schemes for sheep, bovines and pigs, etc., but not for the horses - nothing inside the farm gate for equine welfare.

It’s 2022. The Irish Sport Horse industry contributes nearly a billion euros to the Exchequer each year. It’s well past high time there was more available schemes for the equine sector to access.