The Showjumpers’ Club held a very well attended day of discussion in Naas last week in the form of the Connolly’s Red Mills-sponsored Equine Hedge School.

From the outset, it was clear that this was not the run-of-the-mill breeders’ conference but a forum for discussion on the broader topic of how we can make a living from the sport horse industry.

The large crowd in attendance was noticeably younger than would typically make up the audience at such events. Given the premise for the day, it was great to see that the panel for the afternoon discussion was made up of a range of international faces who are all making their living in the sector.

Chaired by Dr Noel Cawley, David Broome, Billy Twomey and Gerry Mullins spoke openly and frankly on their view of the Irish sport horse industry.

David Broome said that he had had a lucky start to his career with some exceptional horses and he acknowledged that those starting out now face the challenge of a changed landscape.

“Show jumping courses are now highly technical with lighter poles and cups and with all the emphasis on total carefulness. The jumps are not any bigger now, just different. Training of riders has improved, footing has improved and breeding is better and more focused across Europe,” he said.

When pressed on what we need to do in Ireland to restore our status as a producer of show jumping horses, his opinion was that we don’t need to reinvent the wheel, we simply need to look at the best breeders of show jumping horses across Europe and copy what they are doing.

David said he rarely comes to Ireland now to buy horses as we have very few top horses showcasing the breed internationally.

Lt Col Gerry Mullins was very complimentary about the crop of young Irish riders, calling them the best in the world, but he stressed they are not riding Irish-bred horses because the horses are not there. He felt that the good standard of riders were getting the best out of our horses and that when the horses came of age, there was little or nothing left in them to improve upon. His opinion was that our horses are produced too early. He also noted that the spending on top-class show jumping horses has changed and the biggest buyers in the market now are the Americans (including South Americans) and buyers from the Middle East and Far East.

On a more positive note, Billy Twomey spoke about two of the really good Irish horses he has bought, namely Special Lux, who has found a new home in the USA, and Codarco by Darco, who has been bought for Billy by his owners, the Davies family, and on whom Billy hopes to jump on Nations Cup teams for Ireland.

Billy warned that he, too, sees young Irish horses jumping far too much too young and that this method of production needs to be looked at.

On a more positive note, Marcus Swail, who has recently stepped down as Team Ireland vet, a man who sees most if not all of our top show jumping horses, said that he has observed that both the numbers and standard of sport horses has improved quite a lot in the last two years.