OWNERS INFORMATION EVENINGS

The Association of Irish Racehorse Owners (AIRO) in conjunction with HRI Ownership are conducting aseries of four Owners’ Information Evenings, one in each province to run between now and the end of the year.This evening at Down Royal is the first of these meetings and the main objective is to remind owners of their racehorse ownership responsibilities and to educate them on various post-racing career options available for their racehorses. We’d like to thank our contributors Down Royal Corporation of Horse Breeders in association with Horses for People, TREO EILE and The British &Irish Thoroughbred Agency and to our MC of the Q& A session today,MrLeo Powell (The Irish Field).

Association Of Irish Racehorse Owners

Down Royal Corporation of Horse Breeders in association with Horses for People -June Burgess

The Down Royal Corporation of Horsebreeders Pilot project forms part of awider Thoroughbred Assisted Program and runs in parallel with the Racing to Relate and University of Bristol PhD looking at thoroughbreds in EAS. The pilot follows the transition of Thoroughbred former racehorses through amonitored training/retraining programme at Ballygraffan in Comber. The program runs over asix-month period and is overseen by June Burgess from Horses to People and awider advisory team including avet, farrier, nutritionist, chiropractor, JENT practitioner and the invaluable stable staff from Ballygraffan. The Pilot is designed to allow the horses to adjust from life in aracing yard and to give them appropriate time to safely retrain them for the second part of their career. Our focus is retraining for use in Equine Assisted Services but the program works as an excellent base for any thoroughbred coming out of racing before it moves on to its next career. Full details and contact information can be found at www.thoroughbredassisted.org

The British &Irish ThoroughbredAgency -Suzy Barkley

The British and Irish Thoroughbred Agency find forever homes for ex-racehorses. We pride ourselves in being unique, every horse we rehome enters into our life-time care programme with a non-racing agreement and if at any point the situations changes, we step in and rehome the horse. Monique Lyle runs the British Agency and Suzy Barkley runs the Irish Agency, we are in partnership and over the past 18 months we have rehomed at least 200 horses. Together we source, assess and rehome.

The horses come into Suzys’ yard in Donaghcloney from the trainers, they then get some time to chill out before they are assessed. Anna Curran who is amajor part of the team helps Suzy assess and retrain them and together, Monique and Suzy, find the perfect match checking out the ability and facilities of the potential person. Our beautiful dog Monty plays abig part keeping the horses relaxed. It is very important for owners and trainers to have somewhere to send their horses after racing and we pride ourselves in finding ex-racehorses forever homes.

TREO EILE -Anne O’Connor

Treo Eile (meaning ‘Another Direction’) is anot-for-profit organisation that was founded in 2020

Treo Eile assists Thoroughbred breeders, owners and trainers in Ireland to transition both raced and unraced thoroughbreds to asecond career. Our mission is to CONNECT, SUPPORT and PROMOTE

· CONNECT:Owners, trainers and breeders with anetwork of retainers, professionals and potential new owners who can directly help their horse make the transition to a new career.

SUPPORT: these horses and riders in the next phase with well-supported event and educational programmes.

PROMOTE:the versatility of the thoroughbred in its second career through demonstrations, social media, TV and newspaper articles highlighting their success.

Treo Eile does not physically retrain horses, but is an information centre that provides assistance to people who are making decisions about the next step for their Thoroughbred or sourcing an ex-racehorse.

Website www.treoeile.com or email hello@treoeile.com