PLANS to rejuvenate the Irish Horse Board, including a pledge to hold ‘town hall meetings’ in each county to listen to breeders were unveiled by its latest chairman Tiernan Gill at the Board’s annual general meeting (AGM) on Monday night.

The IHB bid in the upcoming studbook tender process was also announced in Mullingar. It was the first post-lockdown AGM held since December 2019 and while the lowest-attended yet, was also one of the most positive.

Six more Horse Board members: Marion Hughes, Helen Kelly, Edward Doyle, Neil Henry, Liam Lynskey and Paddy McCarthy, were joined by a handful more to bring the attendance up to a dozen. The low attendance in Mullingar and at the Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) stallion inspections at Cavan last week were part of the disconnect Gill felt existed between breeders and both the IHB and HSI.

“In 2014, we had 6,000 members. In 2020, there’s just over 4,000. There’s a reduction of 2,000 members, why is that?

“It’s dismal to think we have six out of 4,000 members here tonight. People will ask what do I get for my €10 [shareholder fee]? Anyone who came here tonight could have their coffee and scones for free!” Gill said, referring to one of this week’s hot topics about a Cashel hotel charging €15 for the same.

“I have lots of ideas on how we can improve that [value for money] for members.”

He added that at breeders’ AGMs and stallion inspections on the continent, people were “bursting down the doors to get in. That’s [stallion inspections] a huge missed opportunity for revenue.

“I got elected to this job last June and my aim is to give something back. I thought there was a bit of a disconnect between the horse breeders and people in authority and my vision is to get the connection back.

“I’m just trying to get people to work together. I think breeders in Ireland have come a long way, they know what’s required of the market and prices have never been better.”

The Ballina businessman said one of his key aims is to organise nationwide feedback meetings. “That’s what has to be done; to go to every county and find out from the breeder what the Horse Board can do for them,” he pledged.

The chairman also revealed that the Irish Horse Board will bid to operate the Irish Sport Horse, Irish Draught, Irish Cob and Part-bred Cob studbooks in the upcoming tendering process, overseen by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).

“At a meeting on the 3rd of March, it was agreed that the Horse Board will apply for the tender, the closing date for tenders is the 21st of April.”

DAFM transferred maintaining the Irish Horse Register, which then incorporated the Irish Sport Horse and Irish Draught Horse studbooks, to Horse Sport Ireland in 2008.

In response to two queries from the floor whether HSI representatives had been invited to attend the AGM, the chairman confirmed that HSI chairman Joe Reynolds, CEO Denis Duggan and Interim Director of Breeding, Innovation and Development Sonja Egan were invited but the reason given for their non-attendance was of a potential “conflict of interest with HSI and ourselves going forward for the tender.”

Gill also stated in response to another query, that the Horse Board has the “ammunition and resources” to run the studbooks if the IHB bid is successful.

Surplus recorded

Getting the next generation involved was another matter raised, one pathway he suggested was the Teagasc young breeders programme which had attracted 70 participants in the run-up to the national championships held this weekend.

Accountant Eilis Quinlan, issued a clean audit report for the 2020 accounts, which recorded a surplus of €12,263.