The times they are a changing; will horse riding be socially acceptable in 20 years time?

While searching through my social media last week I came across a post, from SEIB, inviting people to respond to a survey asking the question “will horse riding be socially acceptable in 20 years time”. The post also included an invitation to a webinar where the same topic would be discussed. I'd picked up on the social license and longevity issues in previous blogs so I thought this was a good chance to hear what the industry was doing to address such concerns so I put my name down to attend the webinar.

I've used illustrations from the SEIB brochure for the event to illustrate this blog although I have to admit I only came across this the day after the event. At present the webinar material is not available on social media due to IP concerns.  

My thoughts prior to the event

When we were debating the hunting ban 20 years ago I opposed the ban although up to that point I wasn’t particularly keen on hunting. Why? Well mainly because I could see that behind the façade, the ban was an attack on horse riding in general with basically nothing to do with the welfare of the fox. The ban was fundamentally an act of political jealousy, a sop by soft left Tony to the hard left members of his party who like nothing more than a bit of Toff bashing.

At the time I predicted there would come a day when we would no longer be able to put a bit in a horses mouth or a saddle on its back. Whether that’s in 20 or 50 years time will depend on the political mood of the country (the jealousy driven, elite bashing, left wing activists are still there), public perception and the evidence that the equestrian industry can present to demonstrate that it is a safe environment for both horses and people.

We’ve seen with both COVID and more recently with the war in Ukraine the public in general don’t really get societal risk and that while you can take measures to reduce it you can never reduce it to zero. So the equestrian industry are going to have an uphill task presenting their case and are not helped by social media and such issues as; horses being smacked in Modern Pentathlon competitions, trainers smacking horses with tree branches, Rollkur, Young Sport Horse attrition, a lack of diversity and inclusion coupled with a perception of elitism, the “too white, too posh” tag.

Another problem we face is the crush for space. More and more people want to escape to the country but don’t want to escape to rural ways. They will increasingly want to use bridleways for cycling, walking their reactive dogs and trail running which will see horse riders marginalised as an inconvenient hazard.

So the webinar comes at a good time; we can’t expect the answer but we can expect to set out the problem statement and what we need to do long term to address it. The solution must be based on hard facts; this is not an argument that can be won by emotion. I felt it was useful that the initiative was being driven the insurance industry, people who understand risk and have the data readily to hand to analyse issues such as longevity, impact of breed type, under performing sectors, market trends etc.

I hope it will be a useful evening.

My thoughts after the event

Luckily I was able to get back from hospital and attend most of the webinar (I left after 90 mins). Impressions? The webinar majored on a presentation by an equine vet of their views on the topic. This really was a random stream of consciousness with no clear theme but with some interesting thoughts such as, social license to operate, problems caused by subjective judging, the importance of correct breeding and early training, some examples of the bad press the equine industry has experienced in the last year, various pieces of research (I was very interested with the discussion around the happy horse epigram) and other such matters.

We were asked the key question, “will horse riding be socially acceptable in 20 years time", both before and after this talk, but I don't think anything was said that convinced me to change my mind. We then had the Q & A which did nothing to suggest the panel appreciated the size of the problem, but at least they all seemed to accept that there was a problem. (I should explain that I interpreted "horse riding" as riding horses for competition or commercial gain). 

Via the Q&A I asked the main speaker directly if she was looking to breeders to produce “perfect” horses such that only a few elite riders got to ride them, with a follow up to ask "if horses don’t make the grade and are then destroyed how will that improve public perception" but they choose to side step the question and say they hadn’t been proposing we breed perfect horses. (Then why mention breeding if it isn’t part of your solution, duh?)

Interestingly, they started answering my question by saying they didn’t know who I was but suspected it was a leading question from a special interest group, indicative of the cliquey, "you scratch my back" world that exists at the top of the equestrian world. The panel was knowledgeable but definitely represented the “too white, too posh” stereotype of the business and if I’m honest the basic message I came away with was “perhaps if we can ignore it this problem might go away.”

What a shame the organisers didn’t see fit to bring in a representative from the growing army of social media commentators and equine activists, someone like YouTuber “Rayleigh Link” for example. These people are not anti horse riding per se but they will call out animal mistreatment when they see it. They have staggering follower and views figures and are clearly influencing the riders of the future across the world.

Another division I’ve recently become aware of is the arguments around being a vegan at the same time as being a horse rider. Many vegans will argue vehemently that horse ownership is wrong; others do not see a conflict of interest between being a vegan and being a horse rider. Even if opinion is divided, as veganism will continue to rise in the next 20 years this will give rise to ever increasing anti equestrian sport lobby around the world.

There were some interesting themes discussed by the panel during the Q&A included “it’s cheaper to own a horse now than it has ever been” really?! and the increasing number of people seeking to ride as a result of lockdown.

I also asked the panel if the equine industry had too many Governing Bodies, providing a confusion of facts and initiatives, and while there was some sympathy with this suggestion there was no indication of a need to change. My recent experience asking welfare questions of BHS, only to be told the answer lies with BEF, was behind this question.

The way forward?

Unfortunately the very next day we were greeted with the news that sadly there had been four equine deaths at the Cheltenham Festival. The League Against Cruel Sports said the animals were being "sacrificed for entertainment" while the RSPCA said it was "extremely concerned".

Ian Renton, regional director at The Jockey Club, said it works "tirelessly to do everything we can for horses". I’ve spoken before about societal risk and ensuring that risk is kept as low as reasonably practicable. Here is another example of where opinion is divided. Some will argue that the death of any horse can never be broadly acceptable; others will argue that they are investing money to drive down the risks and keep the number of deaths as low as reasonably practicable, especially when balanced against the benefits to human kind of the activity going ahead (the application of a type of reverse ALARP).

Clearly the equestrian world faces considerable challenge if it is going to survive into the second half of the 21st Century; it clearly needs to stop infighting, get its argument in place and turn good words into meaningful action.

At the end of the evening I was left wondering who is going to offer some real leadership on the matter, who is our Sebastian Coe? Let's hope that cometh the hour, cometh the man (or most likely, woman!).

Footnote

All images are taken from the SEIB publicity for the event and are used for illustration only.

Added later

Author - David Robinson  

David spent approaching 50 years in Her Majesty's Electricity Supply Industry before retiring

He was part of the highly successful design team on the Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station Project before spending 25 years producing safety cases to keep our aging AGR fleet generating for the good of the nation

He is responsible for the Harveywetdog YouTube Channel which he maintains as an outlet for his creative talents

David is currently recovering from blood cancer but refuses to be a victim

All views are his own but might be influenced by the drugs he's currently having to take