Brexit to have knock-on effects for Hickstead and Dublin

CHLOE Breen runs Breen Equestrian with her husband, Irish show jumper Shane Breen, from their home at Hickstead in England. She is also a director in the family business at Hickstead.

She is organising for his top horses – Z7 Ipswich and Compelling Z – to fly to from Liege in Belgium to Doha, Qatar, for the first leg of the Global Champions Tour.Last week, she explained that all of Breen Equestrian’s trucks had to be driven empty to Belgium for authorisation and all the team had to get their EU driver CPCs.

While time consuming and prohibitively costly, Chloe said: “It is a bit of a mess, if you are not ready. But if you have done everything you should have done, it is not that bad. Problem is, we haven’t done it, and it wasn’t very clear what you needed before now.”

Knock-on effect

Asked if the new rules surrounding drivers and lorries having to have both EU and UK-approved certification will have an impact on their international shows at Hickstead, Chloe said: “For sure, there will be hassle. And it will directly impact Dublin too, because you can be guaranteed none of the Europeans are going to have the correct paper work to drive through England. And it’s not like you can just download a form, you have to book your lorry in and there is a huge waiting list. I think it will have a huge effect, certainly this year.”