Unbowed by COVID-19, Horse Sport Ireland’s (HSI) chair Joe Reynolds enunciated a spirit of positivity for the sport and industry he heads as we spoke of his hopes for the year ahead.

A new national hub for the governing body, possible Olympic medals and a step change in our sport horse breeding policies are all on his agenda.

Moving to Greenogue

Ever since Irish equestrianism began organising itself in the post-World War II years it has had many temporary homes – Grafton Street, Leeson Street, The Irish Farm Centre and Millenium Park Naas have all housed its operations as it grew in membership and activity.

No wonder then that Joe expressed himself as “very excited” about a whole new chapter as HSI begins a 35-year renewable lease of the Greenogue Equestrian complex near Rathcoole on the Dublin/Kildare border.

“We will take over the equestrian facilities in March and hope to move our offices there by the end of 2021. It will mean having our own facilities for teaching, training, inspections, breeding programmes and day-to-day operations all on one site. For both practical and financial reasons it is the right move – something we can do within our own cash flow,” he notes.

Facilities

On its 30 acres, the Greenogue complex has an indoor arena, three outdoor sand rings, a miniature eventing training course and an all-weather grass area that they hope to develop as a Derby course.

Planning permission will be sought for extensive office space overlooking newly-extended indoor and outdoor arenas. Reynolds was at pains to point out that Greenogue will not impinge on activities at existing private facilities. He also indicated that efforts will be made to get funding from the National Infrastructure Scheme to help equestrian centres around the country upgrade their facilities.

Olympic and breeding hopes

“After finishing my Christmas dinner the Tokyo Olympics was the first thing I thought about. We have a lot of very experienced riders and we do punch above our weight. Given that depth of experience you would have to say that medals are not beyond the bounds of possibility,” Joe said.

He also envisages what he calls a “step change” in how we go about our sport horse breeding programmes. While keeping some of his cards close, putting money and new innovative effort into the work of improving our filly and mare genetics was on his mind.

“It costs the same to keep a bad horse as a good one. In a five to eight year programme I want to see the average price for foals move well up the spectrum”, he says.