ONCE again, divisions between Horse Sport Ireland (HSI) and a number of their affiliated bodies threaten to get in the way of the industry really moving forward.

On Friday, HSI announced three new board members, but no mention of an appointee for High Performance Sport Advisory Forum? In an Olympic year, there is no High Performance representation on the board of the National Governing Body.

As reported back in March and April in these pages, a certain number of affiliates and individuals were unhappy with the way HSI was operating, particularly in relation to changes made to its Constitution and Memorandum and Articles, and the changes in the process of making appointments to the board. It was reported they felt HSI had fallen short of achieving its goal of representing and unifying the sector.

Opinions aside, where does this leave the all-important High Performance programmes and the substantial funding that comes into the organisation for it?

Is an intervention from the Minister for Agriculture and/or Sport the only way forward? We see endless appearances in front of government committees, but we are hearing the same thing over and over. We have to assume that each body is fighting for what they think is the best outcome for the industry, but cannot come to an agreement on that.

In the words of Patrick Lencioni, “if you could get all the people in an organisation rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.” What are the chances?