THE North Tipperary Horse Show is the latest casualty of skyrocketing insurance costs as the committee made the regretful decision this week to cancel their show planned for next month.

First held as a welcome fixture during the pandemic in August 2021, the show was hosted at the Maher family’s Roscrea Equestrian Centre and was an instant success.

The inaugural show had a range of showing and jump-cross classes and the committee’s plan was to repeat the same schedule this summer.

However, attempts to secure the all-important insurance cover proved fruitless with the only insurance policy offered to the show being well beyond the voluntary committee’s budget.

“Unfortunately due to a huge increase in the insurance costs, the committee of the North Tipperary Horse Show have had to come to the unfortunate decision to cancel the show on the 11th of June,” read a statement on the show’s Facebook page.

Jennifer Haverty, the North Tipperary Horse Show treasurer, outlined the steps the committee had taken to secure insurance for the event.

“Most shows like ourselves depend on their sponsors to have prize money for the classes and you would hope that competitor entry fees would cover what we’d refer to as our ‘dead costs’ such as rosettes. Then there’s food for our volunteers, judges and of course insurance. Most costs are usually paid out on the day or afterwards. The insurance is the one expense that is a must and has to be paid before the show even opens class entries.

“Insurance policy requirements make it hard enough with the stipulations required, along with months going back and forth to the brokers, filling out forms, to then be given a quote that was almost three times higher than the last policy. It seems like insurance companies don’t want to insure equestrian events anymore.

“Our original broker had stopped doing equestrian insurance and referred us on where we were quoted that amount which we just couldn’t sustain. We looked to other companies and once we said ‘equestrian,’ they didn’t want to know or gave an unrealistic quote to basically get rid of us.

“All the other show costs are manageable because of the generosity and goodwill of sponsors who are usually small businesses in the community.”

“The NTHS committee would like to sincerely thank all the sponsors and exhibitors who have supported the show, the Maher family at Roscrea Equestrian Centre and Tipperary County Council who had already allocated €300 sponsorship to help with this year’s show. I’d also like to thank the committee members and volunteer stewards and helpers on the day,” said Haverty.

Another show set to go ahead in the area is the North Tipperary Agricultural Show in nearby Nenagh which will take place on its traditional August Bank Holiday Monday date (August 7th).