Campaign to register horse premises launched

The Department of Agriculture is to commence an aggressive campaign next week to encourage horse owners to register their premises.

The department revealed that there are approximately 6,000 horse premises registered, but their own estimates show there are approximately 70,000 premises countrywide.

“The department anticipate a good response to their campaign,” said Horse Sport Ireland chairman Pat Wall yesterday, following a “very positive meeting” between department officials and representatives of the Irish passport-issuing agencies.

The meeting was organised to address such issues as traceability in light of the horse meat controversy.

“Everybody at the meeting believed the current crisis presents the opportunity to address many long-standing issues surrounding the identification and registration of horses,” said Wall.

“One suggestion is that an all-island approach might be the best solution.

“The department outlined a number of options and are seeking input from the agencies, so that a practical solution is arrived at. The likelihood of compliance will increase dramatically if a practical solution is agreed, rather than imposed bureaucratically.

“The important thing is to have a central database. At this point in time, it looks like that database will be held by the competent authority, which is the Dept of Agriculture.

“Everybody knows we need to do something, particularly in terms of identification, passport security, ie making them difficult to forge, traceability, and medication records.

“It is likely that there will be a new passport with standardised security features, which will be customised for the needs of the different studbooks,” said Wall, who explained a new horse passport regime could see each horse linked with the registered premises.

“Another area to be addressed is tracking the change of ownership. Often this is not updated when a horse is sold. With cattle, when they are sold, the data is updated on a daily basis by the marts. This, similarly, can be adopted by the likes of Goffs and Goresbridge.

“It is essential that all horse owners are responsible and compliant. The horse industry is worth €1.6bn to the economy and everybody was in agreement that the food safety issues need to be addressed, so we can focus on the high-value aspects of the horse sector.

“While the department is concerned with animal welfare and food safety, the passport agencies are concerned with improving their studbooks and identifying their high-performing animals and progeny, ie breed improvement. The passport agencies welcomed the opportunity of engaging with the department at this early stage. We all have the same objective and are looking for a win-win solution.”

* Millstreet unveils its latest innovation today, a Welcome Tour and, unsurprisingly, interest is keen.

“We have about 3,000 entries over the two weeks, and we are very happy with that. Of course, entries will also be taken on each day,” said spokesperson Emer Buckley, adding that competitors had travelled from England and Scotland.

“We hope to accommodate riders who might normally go abroad at this time of year. But this event is for everybody. Many people will not have competed yet this year and this will give them an opportunity to get going. But we have structured it to cater for horses of all ages and experience.”

An evening educational programme has also been arranged, including a talk tonight on nutrition by Red Mills’ Nia O’Malley. Tomorrow will see a presentation entitled an “Introduction to Sports Psychology” by Dr Alan Ringland, while Sunday will see a discussion on safety at shows, as well as a pub quiz.

The Welcome Tour, with a minimum of €25,000 in prizemoney, runs from today to April 7, with a break on April 3/4.

“The aim is to develop the show and next year we are looking at upgrading to one-star international status,” said Buckley.

SEE: www.millstreethorseshow.ie

* The aforementioned Pat Wall has replaced Bernie Brennan as chairperson of HSI’s senior high-performance show jumping committee.

Paul Duffy and James Tarrant will be the other two members, along with team manager Robert Splaine.

“It is important that people are aware that this is a high-performance committee, not a selection committee, and its role is to oversee the programme. It was suggested that I chair the committee for 2013 to help familiarise myself with the programme and the board supported that suggestion at their meeting [on Wednesday],” said Wall.

* Cork show jumper Billy Twomey was upbeat this week after his return to competition in Spain, having recovered from a fractured vertebrae in his back.

Ironically, the injury occurred in February when he fell from a horse as he finalised preparation for a return to competitive action, following surgery in Germany last November on a prolapsed disc in his back.

“The week before my first show back, in a freak accident at home, one of the young horses spooked and, in what would have in nine-times-out-of-ten been a simple spill, I fractured a vertebrae in my back, which put me back on the injured list,” he said.

Having competed for three days in Spain last weekend, he said: “My back feels brand new, so I feel safe to report I am back competing.”

* Correction: A technical malfunction in an article headlined “Army Equitation School under the microscope” in last week’s column resulted in a number of errors in the printed edition.

In a Dáil transcript of a statement by Minister Alan Shatter provided by the Dept of Defence and copied to the article, an aberration in the euro symbol resulted in the digit “1” appearing before a number of figures.

Thus, the correct figures for the Army Equitation School are — running costs: €908,478; salaries: €1.35m; and total prizemoney won in 2012: €73,835.