This very remarkable man, commends a most practical plan: you can do what you want, if you don’t think you can’t, so don’t think you can’t think you can – Charles Inge

When Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) CEO Ronan Murphy launched Irish equestrianism’s first ever strategic plan the day before the Dublin Horse Show, he said: “We have worked on this for nine months and we have come down to a straightforward vision and mission.”

When I later asked HSI Chairman Joe Reynolds to summarise exactly what that mission is he gave me this one sentence: “To have the best riders and horses in the world.”

That in turn involves growing the number of participants in the sport, winning medals and breeding the horses that can do that.

Doing these things right costs money and thus an added reason for this strategic plan is to help get more funding into the system.

Can it work? Well, like Inge said, we have to think it can.

Focus

The five strategic focus areas are listed at the very beginning of this succinct, 23-page document. They are:

1. Leading the sector

2. Developing a sustainable funding model

3. Competing on the world stage

4. Building organisational capacity

5. Engaging with the equestrian community and stakeholders

Under the ‘Leading the sector’ header, the overall goal is for Ireland to be recognised as a top nation in the breeding and production of sport horses.

This has a key educational component that has to be further developed.

The document envisages four sources for a “sustainable funding model” – government, sponsorship, philanthropy, tax incentives. Of immediate concern is that word government.

The strategic plan was one of the demands put upon HSI when they went looking for extra exchequer funding over the next five years. A sum of €5m annually was the figure mentioned.

As Reynolds said: “This is small money within the overall context to things.”

And he is right. Additional finance would certainly not break the nation and would mean that the sector could be more profitable going forward. So, let’s hope that the minister can seed his way to deliver.

Being well enough organised to service the equestrian community is what HSI has to be all about.

On a shoe string, it is delivering a massive amount of programmes both on the breeding and educational front. With extra input both from government and private sources these services can be vastly expanded upon.

Regardless of funding this exacting HSI Strategic Plan had to be created. But to truly make it work adequate funding is needed.

In other words we not only have to plan but must also “think we can”.