MADAM,

I AM writing on behalf of the members of the Irish Draught Horse Breeders’ Association, to express our absolute shock at the bombshell dropped by HSI this week in relation to their proposed increase in registration fees for horses in 2023.

The timing of this announcement, as with so many others taken recently by HSI, seems to be designed to prevent breeders from having any recourse.

As the holders of the Irish Draught Studbook, HSI is supposed to maintain an accurate record of all individual animals within the breed, this price increase will undoubtedly push breeders to register their animals with other studbooks which have much lower fees. The animals will be lost to the breed, as their passports cannot be exchanged for an IHR passport if an owner wishes to have their pedigree recorded or have them classified in the future.

HSI did not engage with our Association regarding these changes. Again the breeders are shown to have no voice, and indeed to be of little interest to HSI.

What are the implications for our studbook? As an Association we are more than happy to engage with both HSI and the Department in relation to maintaining and improving the Irish Draught, if only we could.

Yours etc

Michael Murphy, Chairman, IDHBA

On behalf of the Association.