HUGH McCusker, chairman of the Northern Ireland Horse Board, fears that potential high costs on transferring horses between the north and south of Ireland if Britain crashes out of the European Union without a deal will be “detrimental to the horse industry within Ireland”.

Speaking at the Dublin Horse Show this week, McCusker, who owns and runs the Meadows Equestrian Centre in Lurgan, Co Armagh, said: “Having had meetings with the Department of Agriculture in north, it would appear that if there is no deal, we have been given figures that are between £300 and £400 (€325-430) to do the blood tests and everything for horses to come into the EU, being the south of Ireland.”