Northern Ireland Horse Board

Welcome to the Northern Ireland Horse Board website.

Irish horses are renowned throughout the world for their athleticism, ability and temperament. The Irish Horse Register has been the leading World Breeding Federation Studbook for producing event horses for the past 11 years. The Northern Ireland Horse Board is a breeders co-operative which was set up to support Northern Ireland horse breeders and maintain the Irish Horse Register in Northern Ireland.

Our aim is to be a voice in the horse industry for breeders and promote Northern Ireland bred horses. Currently the Northern Ireland Horse Board has over 2500 members in Northern Ireland and Great Britain. Since our inception in 1996 we have acquired and distributed over £150,000 in grants to recognise premier brood mares and promote the breeding of quality horses.

Foster Mare /Orphan Foal Bank

We offer support to breeders 24/7 with our Foster Mare /Orphan Foal Bank via this website. This is a service open to all equine breeders throughout Ireland whether non-thoroughbred or thoroughbred, member or non-member, anyone loosing a mare or foal can access our website to find a mare or foal, or place a mare or orphan foal on our system, free of charge. We offer this service purely as a facilitator.

 Click here for access

Breeders Challenge Each year we run a Breeder’s Challenge to promote Northern Ireland bred 4 yr olds with a prize fund of £5000 divided equally between owners and breeders. This competition is to find a good looking athletic horse which will excel in its chosen field whether dressage, eventing or show jumping.     The Data Protection Act 1998   It is required under data protection legislation to advise individuals about the processing of personal information i.e. why this information is being collected, how this information will be used and the circumstances in which it will be disclosed.   Information supplied in connection with your [application/registration/competition entry] will be passed by this Northern Ireland Horse Board to the National Equine Database [NED]. NED is jointly operated by the National Equine Database  Company for Government and representative bodies of the  UK equine industry.  A list of those representative bodies will be made available on the National Equine Database website when it becomes operational.    The horse passport based information is being collected in order to provide a source of data that will support Defra’s implementation of the horse passport requirement and veterinary disease control or surveillance activities. NED will also provide information for Defra-authorised research and evaluation or statistical analysis by educational and commercial organisations.   The data collected for the above purposes will be adequate, relevant and not excessive for the above purposes.   Your personal details [i.e. name and address of horse owner / keeper] will be treated as confidential at all times and all data supplied will be kept secure.   Data may be shared, if necessary, within Defra, other Central Government Departments & Non-Departmental Public Bodies. Defra will consider the individual merits of requests for information made by Local Authority enforcement officials & welfare groups on a case by case basis.   Defra will be the data controller for the mandatory information which will be processed for Defra by the NED Company.  The Company will be the data controller for the Pedigree, Performance, Evaluation and Grading Data’ [PPEG]) data and a full list of the information provided by the industry data suppliers in order to populate the PPEG element will appear on the NED website when this is established.   For the equine industry in general, the information passed to NED voluntarily by the industry will provide a comprehensive central archived source of PPEG data which will enhance the quality of horses bred in the UK. PPEG data will be accessible by third parties for a fee online, but the accessible data will not include personal data.  Any enquiries from users of the PPEG website will be directed to the organisation or society that forwarded the information to the National Equine Database.   In limited circumstances, Defra / NED  Company or its agents may be required to release information, including personal data and commercial information, on request under the Environmental Information Regulations, the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information or the Freedom of Information Act 2000.  However, neither Defra, NED  Company nor its agents will permit any unwarranted breach of confidentiality nor will we act in contravention of our obligations under the Data Protection Act 1998.  Unless you indicate otherwise, Defra / NED Company or its appointed agents may use the name, address and other details on your application / entry form to contact you in connection with occasional customer research aimed at improving the services that Defra provides to you.   Animal Identification & Movement Division / National Equine Database  January 2007