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Irish Paddy



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Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2013 16:08 pm

I have today received and anonymous email from anonhorses@gmail.com which I understand has been widely circulated within the Industry. I have no information who the sender is but for our discussion I print the following copy of the letter ......INFORMATION FOR BREEDERS

Message for the powers that be
Date: March 2013

Dear Sir/Madam,

The time has come when stallion owners need to update the conditions of sale of nomination agreements which have been in existence for almost 100years.

The numbers of breeders are reducing rapidly which is evident by the number of foals being registered going from a high of 12,500 in 2008 to 7,000 in 2012.

The back bone of the industry in Ireland is the smaller breeder with two to three mare’s who produce 80% of all the foals born each year. Unfortunately these are the people who are forgotten by the big stallion owners. Surely their clients the mare owner should be able to at least recover the nomination fee and the cost of production when he/she sells the foal.

The facts of the matter are much different, only one in eight foals/yearlings produced leave a profit for the breeder.

The days of the older farmer keeping a few mares are swiftly coming to an end. We now have a new breed of young farmers taking over the reins, these are well educated young business men who are discovering their fathers have been losing money breeding horses for years. It’s quite simple from their point of view the mares must go unless conditions change.

The days of retrick from the powers that be are over if this wonderful Irish industry is to remain in a pivotal position in the world. Those who are in control need to take immediate action to encourage young farmers to continue the tradition of their Fathers by giving back some of the money which at present is being taken from them by stallion owners and the various quango’s which have been developed within the industry without the consent of the breeders who now finance all of them. These quango’s are of no benefit to the breeder.

Proposals for Change:

A. Stallion Owners:
The 1st October concession must be removed and a live foal concession should take its place as standard i.e. no nomination payment due until the breeder has a healthy foal on the ground. In general nomination fees need to be reduced by 50% to allow the breeder to make a profit from the sale of the foal.

Where a breeder supports a stallion during his first two seasons at stud the breeder should be entitled to a free nomination in year three. This is already being offered by some stallion owners in the UK and should be made a standard condition within the nomination agreement for all stallions in Ireland.

B. Sales companies must reduce their charges. Entry fees for all sales need to be reduced by 50%. Buy back commission should be abolished, the sales companies should be paid an increased sales commission when they sell the animal. In other words, earn their reward by results and not collect hundreds of thousands of absorbent fees each year regardless whether the animal is sold or not.


C. Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association (I.T.B.A.)
Foal Levy Tax

Foal levy tax should be abolished. There are no benefits to the breeder for paying this tax as the benefactors of tax levy are doing little or nothing to help the breeder financially.
I.T.B.A. receives €450,000 each year in foal levy taxes from the breeders of Ireland. No other country charges a foal levy tax for registering a foal. This tax was introduced without the knowledge of breeders by the current chairman of the I.T.B.A. some twelve years ago. The breeder is being fooled by the I.T.B.A. when they say they are working for the breeder and trying to improve conditions for him/her. Unfortunately all of the hierarchy within the I.T.B.A. are stallion owners or managers of the largest stallion stations in Ireland. It is therefore not in their interest to make any adjustments to the present nomination contract. I.T.B.A. have done nothing to save the breeder money in areas such as sales entry fees. Weatherby’s charges, The Equine Centre fees and veterinary costs.

D. The Irish Equine Centre.

Another organisation that gets €1,000,000.00 from the foal levy tax each year and no questions are asked as to what this money is being used for and what are the benefits to the breeder. The services the Equine Centre provide can be obtained at a number of privately owned laboratories at a cost of 50% less.

E. Irish Thoroughbred Marketing (I.T.M.)

They receive €500,000.00 each year from the foal levy tax and what does the breeder get in return. The National Hunt Breeder gets nothing as our only market for National Hunt horses is England. It is fair to say our National Hunt Horses need no introduction in England, the English buyers have been coming to Ireland long before I.T.M. was in existence. When the National Hunt breeder has a suitable animal he takes it to sell in England. On the other side the flat breeder is taking all his best stock to Doncaster and Newmarket to be sold so what are we paying I.T.M. €500,000 for? The big opportunities which were supposed to be created in China for the Irish Breeder by I.T.M. has so far only benefited one big stud farm in the south and some of the management team personally within I.T.M.


More and more breeders have stopped paying the foal levy tax as they can see the breeder is not getting value for money, in fact he/she has nothing to show for the 25million Euro which has been collected from Irish Breeders since the introduction of the foal levy tax in 2000.
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