“FOR want of a nail, the shoe was lost. For want of a shoe, the horse was lost. For want of a horse, the rider was lost. For want of a rider, the battle was lost. For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost; and all from the want of a horseshoe nail.”

Tracing back to the 1400s, the lesson from this ancient proverb is basically that we are only as strong as our weakest link - that the earliest possible intervention can play a key role in averting a much larger problem down the road.

Now thanks to the timely intervention of Minister of State for Sport, Thomas Byrne, who effectively stepped up to bat for equestrian inclusion, Sport Ireland has now been asked to look again at including horse sport in its future plans for the flagship Abbotstown campus. Minister Byrne is on the ball, hopefully it will result in a score and equestrian sports will not simply be quietly airbrushed out of the ambitious masterplans for the stunning campus.

See Judith Faherty’s adjoining news story for the latest on this developing story.

Industry boost

Two families giving the Irish sport horse industry a massive boost last weekend are of course, the Duggans and Fagans, who once again, along with their army of staff and volunteers, pulled out all the stops to stage spectacular eventing and show jumping showcases at Millstreet International (pages 85-89) and Mullingar International (pages 90-93) respectively. We enjoyed fabulous sport on our home shores and its immense contribution to all levels, from ponies ranks to world class riders, simply cannot be measured.

On the Nations Cup circuit, the Irish team were in action at La Baule, unfortunately exiting after round one, following victories for Team Ireland at the five-star venues of Rome and most recently Langley, Canada (see page 89) under chef d’equipe Michael Blake.

(Full La Baule coverage in next week’s issue).