The 128th Kerrygold Dublin Horse Show, which almost did not happen because of the foot-and-mouth crisis, began in the RDS showgrounds yesterday.
It provided a wonderful outlet for horse-lovers, who had seen dozens of shows cancelled during the early part of the year.
The RDS, which spends over £1 million annually on the event, imposed strict disinfecting and other controls, especially on horses and equipment coming in from Britain and the North.
Horses coming from and through Britain for the event had to travel on specified routes to avoid areas where there had been recent outbreaks of the disease.
In addition, no food for either the stock or the human travellers was allowed into the country under the foot-and-mouth regulations and a protocol agreed between the organisers and the special advisory group set up by the Minister for Agriculture.
Controls were equally tight on the Border, where, according to visitors, controls had been upgraded for the event.
The managing director of the Irish Dairy Board, Dr Noel Cawley, said it was very happy to be the title sponsor again this year for the 13th time.
He told a press conference that 2001 had been a very good year for the board and the farmer suppliers who had seen some benefit from the foot-and-mouth outbreaks in Britain and the Netherlands.
"The slaughter of cows there created an upsurge in demand, but the market has gone back into balance now but prices are still up by 8 to 10 per cent," he said.
There was a downside to the disease, too, for the board, he said, with the banning of Irish dairy products by a number of countries, including Mexico and Algeria.
Officials from Mexico, he said, were due in Ireland this week to look at their ban and for the first time in his 26 years on the board, there were no EU export refunds available for skim milk powder.
He said this was an exceptional thing to happen and showed the strength of demand for product. He expected prices to ease back closer to the end of the year, but it had been a good year.
However, Dr Cawley warned that the Irish dairy industry could not go on competing against itself in overseas markets and said this would create more and more difficulties as markets became more organised.
In some of the big continental markets, he said, there were only two buyers representing major retailer groups and they were more or less in a position to dictate price.
New Zealand, he said, had now organised a system where its products were sold by only one seller abroad and the Dutch had done the same thing with its gouda cheese industry. He was urging the Irish dairy industry to do the same thing.
On the Irish sporting horse industry, Dr Cawley, who is chairman of the Irish Horse Board, confirmed that there were many potential buyers of Irish horses at the show.
The quality of the Irish horse was beginning to shine and overseas buyers were interested. Proof of this was the number of wins by Irish teams and Irish-bred horses this year, including the winning of the European Championships for the first time.
The inward-buying scheme, he said, under which the IHB refunded air fares to visitors who purchased horses here, had been highly successful and was working very well.