Reed announces top names to join Warmblood senior advisory board

The Warmblood Studbook of Ireland today announced that it had established a Senior Advisory Board, with members representing a wide spectrum of the industry.

The purpose of the board, the organisation says, is to provide strategic advice and insights to WSI as it collaborates with stakeholders to develop programmes, events, services, and initiatives that will “benefit the entire Irish sport horse industry”.

 

The Chair and Members of WSI’s Senior Advisory Board will be:

• Michael Sadlier (Chair) is one of Ireland’s leading veterinarians and surgeons. A partner at the world-famous Troytown GreyAbbey Equine Hospital, Michael has served as Chair of the WSI Veterinary Committee since the Studbook’s founding in 2009.

•Heather Dean-Wright is a leading breeder whose Ard prefix is known worldwide. Among the many international horses Heather has bred is the 2014 Silver Medallist at the World Breeding Championship for 5-Year-Old Showjumping Horses, Ard Ginger Pop.

•Diane Harron Eakin is one of Ireland’s most successful breeders of CSI and CCI/CIC horses, having produced many Nations Cup show jumping horses, approved stallions, and eventing horses. A winner of the Northern Ireland Horse Board Breeder’s Award for Eventing, Diane is a member of the WSI World Breeding Championships Selection Committee, having been elected to this position by the members.

•John Hughes helped to launch a new progressive era in the Irish sport horse industry in his three roles as veterinary surgeon, stallion owner, and breeder. An elder of Ireland’s “first family” of sport horse breeders, John stood many important Thoroughbred and sport horse sires including the legendary Holsteiner stallion Cavalier Royale.

•Hans-Juergen Kuehnle has a global reputation as a breeder of both show jumping and eventing horses under the Tullibards prefix and as a trainer of young riders. A former rider, Hans hold multiple certifications from the German Federation as a trainer of sport horses, race horses, and riders. The father of three international riders, most recently Hans’s daughter Jennifer won the 2015 Gold Medal in the European Children on Horses Showjumping Championship.

•Gerry Mullins served as Officer Commanding of the Army Equitation School and represented Ireland on fifty Nations Cup teams. The winner of over 100 international classes including Grands Prix, Gerry represented Ireland at two Olympic Games and placed fourth in the 1982 World Championship. He is a much sought after trainer with an international clientele that spans the globe and includes Olympians, championship riders, and up-and-coming young riders.

•Anne Marie O’Gorman is the owner of Lissava Stud, known throughout the world for the international horses bred and produced at the stud by her and her team. A former board member of the Irish Horse Board Co-operative Society, Anne Marie also contributes to the sport horse industry by importing high quality sires to stand at stud.

•Ger O’Neill, who last month won the Gold Medal at the World Breeding Championship for 6-Year-Old Showjumping Horses, is one of Ireland’s top producers of show jumpers. Along with his Gold Medal at Lanaken, he earlier won two silver medals on two different horses (including Heather Dean Wright’s Ard Ginger Pop). Among the horses Ger has produced are the Olympic show jumper Castlefield Eclipse and the Rome 5* Grand Prix winner Zigali PS. Ger recently accepted an invitation to be the Test Rider for the WSI stallion inspections.

•John Watson had an illustrious career as an international eventing rider. He won the Bronze Medal in the 1977 European Eventing Championship, and in 1978 he won the Silver Medal in the World Championships. In 1979 John and his colleagues on Team Ireland won the Gold Medal in the European Eventing Championship. This Olympian is also the father of international eventing rider Sam Watson. John is an avid breeder whose successes include the double World Equestrian Games Irish team member Horseware Bushman.

John is the former Chairman of the Traditional Irish Horse Association and remains an active member.

According to Tom Reed, WSI’s Breeding Director: “The WSI Senior Advisory Board is designed to help WSI and our partner, the KWPN, develop world-class services for and with the Irish sport horse industry.

“We think a good way to do this is by listening to a group of smart, experienced, and progressive experts with roots in a wide variety of constituencies. We are grateful for the willingness of all these very busy people to join with us to create grass-roots change in our industry.”