I can still remember the pride I felt one day sitting in the stand at Aachen and seeing an Irish horse named Slyguff competing for Germany in a major event.

It was the thought that, just a few years earlier, this same beautiful animal had grazed with its mother in a field in Bagenalstown and now was competing in one of the world’s great arenas.

I felt then, and feel even more strongly now, that the breeders of such horses should be justly recognised and rewarded. On that occasion the O’Neills of Slyguff Stud in Co Carlow went all but unnoticed.

Thankfully Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) is now beginning to make a concerted effort to correct that kind of oversight.

In 2018 HSI initiated a series of international breeder prizes. These were given to the breeders of the top three performing Irish-bred horses at year-end, based on World Breeding Federation (WBFSH) rankings in both show jumping and eventing – regardless of which stud book they represent.

These prizes of €1,500, €1,000 and €500 are being given again this year and, while it is a good beginning, it is not enough.

If Horse Sport Ireland does get its expected rise in funding these prizes should be vastly increased.

Breeders’ fund

A ring-fenced sport horse breeders’ prize fund should be established that would award prizes, not only for WBFSH rankings, but also for other achievements such as double clear rounds in Nations Cups, five-star Grand Prix winners, the winners of four-star horse trials, and medal winners in major championships.

Granted, we currently have few horses in those categories, but the ambition has to be that we will have more and that, in future, such a fund would be well used. The era of giving grants for just breeding a foal is long over. The time for rewarding breeders of winners is here.

Last year the top breeders’ prize in show jumping went to the now sadly-missed Susan Lanigan-O’Keeffe for breeding the Egyptian team’s Suma’s Zorro (AES). The top eventing winner was Rhona Barnwall from Co Dublin for Horseware Stellor Rebound (ISH).

At the moment the top Irish-bred eventer is Ballaghmor Class, bred by the late Noel Hickey in Limerick. He stands third of 5,695 listed in the rankings. In show jumping Loughnavatta (by Luidam), bred by Rory Costigan in Tipperary, is our highest ranked at 154th out of 6,500.