A MULTI-YEAR strategy to help grow and develop the Irish Sport Horse industry is currently being undertaken by the owners and operators of Ireland’s main equestrian competition venues.

The Equestrian Competition Venues Owners Alliance (ECVOA) is developing a comprehensive strategy, spanning five-year and seven-year phases, which they intend to present to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and its Minister Charlie McConalogue (FF) on its completion next year.

Spokesperson for ECVOA, Chris Byrne of Coilog Equestrian, told The Irish Field: “We are developing a five-year and a seven-year strategy and hope to present that to the Minister from a venues and centres viewpoint. It will detail where we are in the sport and also how to develop and grow our industry over the coming years.

“We are working on the strategy now with a number of third party consultants. We would hope that the Minister would look at our sector and the way it is structured – there isn’t one equestrian competition centre venue that would not fall into EU definition of rural development for example.

“We need to get on with developing the sport horse industry. We are presenting a two-phase strategy of five and seven years. It will take between eight and 10 months to complete the work on this.

The strategy will include access to venues from a breeding viewpoint as well as issues such as prize money and the development of the industry going forward,” said Byrne.