HORSE Sport Ireland’s finance committee chairman James Kennedy has said the organisation intends to build its cash reserve from a paltry €28,000 last year to in excess of €610,000 over the next five years. The 2015 annual report, published on Friday, showed that Horse Sport Ireland received €6,126,675 in income last year, while spending €6,099,000.

Based on that income level, Horse Sport Ireland will need to hold back at least €110,000 each year for the next five years from its spending.

James Kennedy, chairman of the Horse Sport Ireland’s finance committee, said: “HSI became the national governing body for equestrian sport in 2008 and almost immediately was hit by the economic crash, which led to a cut in funding for HSI and very challenging economic times for people in the sector.

“In the years following, the Board took a view that we should support activities in the industry rather than building reserves. However, like any organisation, HSI does need to build a modest reserve. We intend to build this to approximately 10% of our income over the next five years.”

A breakdown of the income (Table 1) shows that the highest portion of HSI’s income comes from Department of Agriculture grants, which amounted to more than €1.8 million last year.

The second highest income boost comes from ‘operations’, which includes fees for foal registrations and passports. HSI received €1,690,776 from this source in 2016.

Irish Sports Council high performance and core grants accounted for a combined total of more than €1.436 million last year.

On the spending side, the HSI annual reports broke expenditure down into four broad areas (Table 2).

Some €3,455,000 was spent on breeding projects, initiatives, international marketing and operations.

Within this, employment costs accounted for the highest amount at €1,029,000. Some €261,000 was spent on promotional initiatives and €234,000 on Breeding Sub-Board financial supports.

Some €168,000 was spent on IT, development, the HSI website and the CapallOIR database.

Individual projects listed include Lanaken and Le Lion d’Angers (€59,000), genetic indexing/conservation (€55,000), stallion inspections (€55,000), mare inspections (€45,000) Innovation Fund (€97,000) and unspecified breeding initiatives (€100,000).

International marketing accounted for €104,000 and marketing exhibitions accounted for €132,000.

Listed under the €2,644,000 expenditure on sport programmes, high performance, Sport NI and operations, some €1,295,000 was spent on high performance investment and €523,000 on employment costs. FEI and national federation costs amounted to €138,000 and coaching programmes accounted for €117,000.

The €1,295,531 spent on high performance was further broken down by discipline, with €458,994 going to show jumping and €413,260 to eventing. Pentathlon amounted to €142,260, para equestrian amounted to €55,000 and dressage came to €17,657.

A legal sum (including provision) of €122,344 was listed in this expenditure, as was almost €20,000 spent on the owners’ programme.

HSI’s total staff costs rose by more than €100,000 between 2014 and 2015, up from €1,501,908 in 2014 to €1,605,916 last year. HSI employed 26 permanent staff and nine temporary administration staff last year.

Referring to the extremely late publication of the 89-page annual report, HSI’s corporate affairs manager, Laura Skelton said: “While the report is very comprehensive and detailed, it is being published later than we would like. We intend to prioritise resources to publish it earlier next year and/or to perhaps publish the financial results in advance of the full publication.”

Foals registered

THERE were 3,926 Irish Sport Horses foals registered in 2015, a 5% reduction on the previous year. However the 509 Irish Draught foals registered represented a 25% increase on 2014.

White passports

HORSE Sport Ireland issued identity documents (white passports) for 5,109 horses last year where they were presented for registration with no pedigree recorded. With the total number of foals and older registered by Horse Sport Ireland in 2015 amounting to 12,146 and 7,037 of these being registered in either the Irish Sport Horse or Irish Draught Horse Studbook, this shows that 42% of all horses registered last year had not recorded breeding.

Late

registrations

Some 6,835 older horses were registered with Horse Sport Ireland in 2015. With the exception of a small number of yearlings, almost all of these adult horses would have been registered outside the statutory requirement that foals should be registered in their year of birth or within six months of birth.

Clean sport

THERE were no positive tests under the National Equine Anti-Doping Programme in 2015, while all 122 tests carried out by the FEI on horses ridden by Irish riders in international competitions proved to be negative. This continues a seven-year run where no horse ridden by an Irish rider in an FEI competition has tested positive.

Irish entries

DURING 2015, some 615 Irish athletes represented Ireland at 321 different shows in 30 different countries on 5 different continents.

In total, over 6,000 entries were made for Irish riders in international competition under the auspices of the international governing body the FEI.