Riding Clubs overwhelmingly adopted new grading proposals put forward by the Board offering significant change to how the Association of Irish Riding Clubs operates.

A summary of the changes include:

1. Streamlining of the grade names for greater clarity
2. A new competition structure giving members a greater choice of competitions to compete. This will allow members to compete in competitions at a higher level and also at a lower level in competitions where available.
3. Defined role and eligibility criteria for the Club Grading Officer.
4. Defined role and eligibility criteria for the Regional Grading Officer.

It is envisaged that the new changes will help to increase membership and boost participation at AIRC activities.

Clubs who were voting on the proposals over the past month gave them the green light with an overwhelming majority of 96.3% adopting the changes.  81 out of the 121 clubs voted on the proposals by this afternoons deadline.

AIRC chairperson Tony Ennis said, ”A huge thanks must go to all of our clubs who considered these proposals over the past month and we are grateful that they have been resoundingly endorsed. We will now get to work to ensure that we have these changes in place for next year.”