So
six years after Clare Salmon was driven out of British Equestrian for telling
us the same, it transpires equestrian sport is elitist and classist and prone
to bullying in its ranks - which in turn will come across as racism to some.
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The equestrian life and the challenges it faces
©Harveywetdog |
To
be honest, once you accept you are basically an elitist clique, it’s almost
inevitable that you are going to appear racist. For example, for me, attending
an event like Bolesworth would be my idea of equestrian hell; the feeling of
exclusion would be absolute.
So
as well as social license and environmental sustainability, we know have to add
equality, diversity and inclusion to our list of actions required to ensure
equestrian sport is allowed to exist in future.
With
the exception of social license, which is fundamentally the result of the
equestrian world repeatedly shooting itself in the foot, environmental
sustainability and equality are government driven mantras which we simply have
to be seen to be acting on and complying with.
Why?
Well, putting incredibly wealthy clients and hard work aside, top class
equestrian sport (let’s not use the word elite in this context) is funded, not
by a bunch of altruistic, philanthropic sponsors as our friends in marketing
would have us believe, but by government controlled funding, either directly
from the tax payer (BEF like to use the term “the exchequer” rather tax payer)
or indirectly via the National Lottery. So I imagine it really is a case of
comply or die.
I’m
sure someone in BEF is now coming up with a series of Venn diagrams to
demonstrate how the action required to address social license, sustainability
and horses for all interact; they may even be coming to the conclusion that some
are in fact mutually exclusive.
but no one ever said equestrian life was easy.
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