'The culture has to change' - Ger Hussey responds to HRI criticism of rehoming proposal

The man behind a proposal for a new retraining and rehoming centre for retired racehorses has hit back at Horse Racing Ireland's rejection of the initiative last week.

HRI's equine welfare and bloodstock director John Osborne penned a column in the Irish Field last weekend in response to a well-supported proposal put forward by Ger Hussey on a Facebook page named Horse Welfare Within Racing Ireland.

Hussey, who has experience in rehoming thoroughbreds through Solway Racehorses in Scotland and is travelling head lad to trainer Paul Flynn, met with Osborne to discuss its viability, but the HRI welfare chief has since dismissed the idea, suggesting the proposal had a number of pitfalls and could worsen matters.

Hussey's plan revolves around aftercare for thoroughbreds, putting the responsibility firmly on the trainer or owner to notify authorities when a horse is retired from racing. The proposal suggests the retired horse is then logged and assessed to ascertain suitability to be placed in a newly established centre, where they can be retrained with a view to going into alternative disciplines.

However, Osborne argued centralising the information is an option already available if people "did what is already expected of them" by updating the ownership record and registering with retraining charity Treo Eile.

Hussey said: "There's just a culture there that once the horse has reached the end of their career, the owner is absolved of all duty and it has to change. HRI's longtime line is that the individual has to take responsibility, but some simply are not.

"The whole thing needs to be centralised so there is a system in place to make sure every single horse coming out of training is logged properly. 

"The whole point is to make it an IHRB regulation to have the horse logged and assessed immediately to prevent a horse with an injury being thrown out into a field or passed to a dealer. The Irish Racehorse Trainers' Association (IRTA) advises trainers to take photographs and log details but that's only voluntary."

Osborne also questioned the use of the facility for retraining and where the assessment would end, citing Jan Brueghel's withdrawal from last week's Melbourne Cup as a prime example of the difference of opinion in this area, but Hussey argues that what he is proposing is nowhere near as complex.

He added: "I think he tried to overcomplicate our assessment procedure massively to discredit the whole proposal. There was nothing to say the checks would be as rigorous or open to interpretation as he is suggesting; the main goal is finding homes for the horses.

"He said he wants to help other retrainers rather than have one central retraining facility, but the proposal mentions a hybrid approach between the centre and a registered panel of retrainers which would coordinate things better. There have been retrainers who approached HRI for funding in the past and they couldn't get any."

Hussey believes Trio Eile performs an important function but disagrees with Osborne that it is already performing many of the functions contained in the proposal, particularly surrounding retraining.

Osborne took exception to the term "dealer" being used "as a term of abuse almost", but Hussey reiterated that "unscrupulous" dealers need to be cut from the system to ensure traceability and transparency.

Hussey added: "The dealers we referenced are the unscrupulous ones who are prepared to go into yards and offer to take the horse for cash and then the horse is never heard of again. No one knows if it is exported for slaughter, ends up in a bad home or ends up on a housing estate."

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