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Horse Sport Ireland, a key organization in the Irish equestrian sector, has been placed under interim examinership to safeguard it from creditor claims. The body, which manages Olympic teams and studbooks, faces significant financial pressures stemming from litigation and a dispute over the use of state funds.
There was success for HSI earlier this month as the eventing team and the showjumping team, featuring Cian O’Connor and Bertram Allen, above, qualified for the LA Olympics in 2028.
Photograph: Sam Barnes/Sportsfileow can a body that gets 80 per cent of its €10 million annual budget directly from the State need protection from its creditors? In addition to delivering high-performance Olympic showjumping and eventing programmes, it maintains the Irish Sport Horse Studbook and Irish Draught Studbooks where horse owners register foals for identification documents necessary for a horse to be sold, transported or entered into competition.
There was success for HSI earlier this month as the eventing team and the showjumping team, featuring Cian O’Connor and Bertram Allen, both qualified for the LA Olympics in 2028.
‘At least I’m not English’ – How Rory McIlroy and Lee Westwood have traded insults down the yearsDepartment of AgricultureOn Monday the High Court granted HSI interim examinership to protect it from its creditors. Accountant Joe Walsh was appointed interim examiner of the company, which employs 47 people from its headquarters in Naas, Co Kildare.
Although the embattled organisation has lurched from governance crisis to crisis every few years since its foundation, the sudden dash for court protection from creditors shocked staff and those in the equine industry. Signs that HSI was in need of extra cash came last year when it introduced a €60 levy on riders entering international competitions. This levy was reduced to €45 after an outcry from competitors that labelled it a “money grab”.
While HSI has been criticised by former staff who received settlements after taking a series of bullying cases, the body has insisted it was financially insulated from these legal actions by its insurance. For more than a decade, the Clare-based Warmblood Studbook of Ireland has complained that millions of euro that the Department of Agriculture funnelled into HSI amounted to illegal State aid.
WSI, which aims to develop a specific breed of Irish sport horses, complained that horses on its register were wrongly excluded from competitions and that HSI abused its dominant position. A WSI complaint to the European Commission led to the Department of Agriculture agreeing to stop paying State aid directly to HSI. Instead it tendered the management of five stud books, along with breeding schemes and marketing. HSI won the tender to run the Irish Sport Horse Studbook.
In 2024, WSI took a High Court competition case suing HSI, the Irish Horse Board and eight people who held prominent roles in HSI and the Department of Agriculture. WSI claimed it lost up to €9 million due to their alleged anti-competitive behaviour. As part of its foundation, HSI had to indemnify the Irish Horse Board, which represents breeders, against any legal claims arising from HSI taking over some of its roles from 2008.
Somehow, the WSI complaint was not included in the HSI’s cover with insurer Lloyds, and HSI and the Irish Horse Board hired separate legal teams to defend the High Court case. In June, HSI agreed to take over the defence of the Irish Horse Board in the case. While the Irish Horse Board had run up €300,000 in legal costs, a settlement was agreed for HSI to pay about €150,000 – and €25,000 was paid.
The Irish Horse Board, which competes with HSI for Department of Agriculture tenders, issued a 21-day statutory demand for payment of its €122,600 costs on July 31st.The move now calls into question the standing of a security of costs judgment that HSI had obtained against WSI in June. The court ruled that WSI would have to lodge an as-yet undetermined amount of money in case it loses its claim. HSI forecasts it will cost it €925,000 to defend the case.
The examinership process leaves HSI’s staff fearing redundancies, and both Sport Ireland and the Department of Agriculture questioning whether they should continue pumping millions of euro into the financially distressed equestrian body. With many riders, breeders, equestrian centre owners and politicians unhappy with HSI’s performance in recent years, there will be calls for new leadership to be installed if the body is to jump back into action.
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