On the Hebron Road into Kilkenny nestled in between a McDonald’s drive thru and the local cemetery is a small halting site. A crescent of bungalows. Outside on the green, young horses graze, at the back of the bungalows horse carts rest against walls and sheds.

The residents here are passionate about their horses, they trot their horses along the adjacent ring road almost daily. Nearby amidst a tillage crop young children play with their younger foals.

The picture is almost idyllic. For the horse owners there it’s a way of life.

It contrasts starkly with video footage of other people we have been collecting and monitoring for months. YouTube and Facebook footage of sulky races on dual carriageways just at the break of day. In some cases cars, vans and four wheel drives travel four and five wide, taking up the entire three lanes. Horns howling, lights flashing. Men sit on the roofs of vans with video cameras, others stand on the ledge of open windows and hold on to the roof bars, roaring, jeering on the competing horses.

A local Councillor in Kilkenny Andrew McGuinness, proposed a ban on sulky racing during his time as Mayor, the Council will vote on the proposals in the coming weeks. He claims he has been inundated with complaints from locals. An online petition on the issue received 13,000 responses. On the roof of City Hall looking over the historic St. Canice’s Cathedral and onwards to the green fields beyond he tells Prime Time, “I am aware that it is a tradition in many communities and it has been for generations, but it needs to be regulated and it needs to be done in a very health conscious way and in a very animal welfare conscious way”. Andrew McGuinness is aware of the charge from the local travelling community that he is being anti-traveller and targeting members of the community, he rejects the claim outright.

Michael Reilly who lives outside Kilkenny tells us “we are not going out on the road with the intention to do any damage to anybody or any animal, so at least give us a fair crack at the whip on that before you go putting us off of the road completely, because there is one thing, we will not stop driving our sulkies if it means going to prison or whatever. We are not going to stop driving horses because that is all we have and we want to rear our children into it”.

The ISPCA details the horrific injuries suffered by some horses which they have rescued. The charity impounded more than fifty horses already this year, it is struggling to cope. One of its sanctuaries we visit is full, there is no more room to receive horses, despite the almost daily phone calls reporting horses which members of the public fear are suffering or being abused.

Tonight we reveal how the number of horses seized in one single County Council, exceeds the number the ISPCA have seized nationally. Also, we reveal how 100% of the horses seized in Kilkenny this year have been euthanised.

Prime Time's Fran McNulty