Is Equestrianism falling into the shadows?

Is Equestrianism falling into the shadows?

For us riders we often believe our sport probably doesn’t get the recognition it deserves nowadays. There was a time when Lucinda Green was a household name, when Milton was a celebrity in his own right and when Princess Anne’s riding career was front page news. Yet now if you asked someone not directly involved in the sport who the likes of Mary King or William Fox-Pitt were, they wouldn’t be able to give you an answer. Is this an indication that our sport is falling into the shadows?

With supposedly two million horse riders in the UK equestrianism certainly isn’t a flailing sport in that sense, yet the sport seems to be becoming more and more closed off from the outside world. The television coverage offered now on non-satellite television is minimal, and the recognition given to our top riders and horses is also trifling. So why is our sport getting so little acknowledgment from the outside world? We can switch on the television at the weekend and see the likes of snooker, golf and darts – sports which probably have a similar following than equestrian - yet we rarely see footage from our top events and competitions.

Perhaps the divide between us and the non-horsey population is due to the stereotypical image we’re all given as soon as we so much as mention the phrase ‘horse riding’. Obviously not everyone brands us with this mark, and certainly not all of us oppose this image, yet this particular stereotype pushes the distance. Many people over the years have made a negative remark about me riding, with the likes of ‘posh’ and ‘rich’ being among the most popular. Yet, for some this cannot be further from the truth. Many of us are not rich because we have horses, not the other way round! This image given to us will instantly put others off the sport. The price tag involved is often way over-dramatized and exaggerated, thus forcing people to think they won’t be able to afford horses even before starting. This may instantly be the reason why our sport isn’t as widely appreciated and recognised as we would like it to be, and why our televised coverage is somewhat lacking. Nobody who isn’t involved in the sport is going to deliberately switch on for instance the Badminton coverage and watch it; equestrianism is one of those sports you have to be involved in in some way in order to appreciate it in all its glory. I’ve realised I’m rambling rather a lot now, I’ll continue on the subject matter!

According to the BBC, the reason they dropped the likes of the Hickstead Derby in 2010 was due to low viewing figures and the fact that they wanted to cover a wider range of sports. Now, call me wrong but I am yet to see any change in the range of televised sports on the BBC. Perhaps the low viewing figures can also be blamed on the lack of advertising and information given to us about when our events are going to be televised. Other sports around the world get quick adverts and media coverage to inform us, yet equestrian sports get none of this. Badminton was not once advertised on television, despite being on the red button all day and on BBC2 for hours. Perhaps the low viewing figures can be blamed on this.

The less televised coverage and media coverage equestrian sports get, the less people are likely to want to know more and get involved. Riding isn’t the sort of sport someone who doesn’t take part in watches – unlike football etc., and so therefore this seriously limits the amount of people likely to watch. I know for a fact many of my close non-horsey friends have no interest whatsoever in watching an equine sport on television, yet will happily watch tennis or football – neither of which they personally take part in.

I think in a sense our sport is falling into the shadows, yet not in a sense of it being a small or unpopular sport – more in a sense of the fact that it’s becoming quite private. We’re almost in our own world now, and it never used to be like this. This pulls us out of the media’s eye (which may in some ways be a good thing!), and thus means our riders and horses do not get the recognition for their achievements as they perhaps should do. I’ll use the example of our team GBR’s fantastic triumph in the World Equestrian Games last year, team gold and individual silver for William. Yet this was disappointingly not acknowledged by our national papers or news teams. In my opinion they deserve so much more credit for what they do, and I hope that the current media state will improve in the future.

The big hat debate

Recently the whole debate about whether or not a helmet should be compulsory to wear in the dressage arena has arisen, as I am sure you are all aware. The introduction of a safety top hat has turned the world of dressage upside down, turning everyone’s attention to perhaps valuing safety over looks. The development of this hat, which meets EN1384 safety standards, was spurred on somewhat by the Olympic dressage rider Courtney King-Dye’s accident back in March 2010. Whilst schooling her horse at home he slipped and fell, knocking her unconscious, fracturing her skull and leaving her in a coma for almost a month. Courtney was not wearing a hat. Now if this isn’t reason enough to wear a hat every single time you ride then I don’t know what is. Courtney now cannot stress enough how important it is to wear a helmet that meets the current safety standards – quoting from her website;

‘When I first wrote on my website after the coma. I said I was all for wearing helmets, but I didn't want helmets to be all my accident means. Now I think it should be. What else could it mean? It's exactly that that helps save people from injury. It saved a few people we all know from having to go through what I went through. Guenter Seidel, Liz Austen, Debbie McDonald. They're three great riders who have had recent falls and didn't always wear a helmet before my accident. I've said before that if my accident saves ONE person from going through what I went through, it's worth it. That's THREE that everyone knows... Definitely worth it. I can tell myself that my accident is definitely beneficial because of that. Without it, like Lauren Sammis said, it's
just a simple tragedy. This gives it meaning.’

Courtney now no longer plans to wears a top hat to compete in, and calls herself ‘silly’ back when she used to wear one. So clearly, the introduction of this new safety top hat is nothing but a good thing. But will it catch on? Courtney’s accident may have provoked other riders to wear hats more frequently temporarily, but a year on we are still seeing riders both competing and riding generally without helmets on. Proof that possibly the message is yet to really catch on – and that this new hat may take some getting used to. Will riders really sacrifice appearance for safety? I certainly hope so.

The debate continued when a photo of the Queen was published earlier this week. It showed the Queen riding along with two of her grandchildren. Queen Elizabeth was not wearing a hat – sparking outcry from the safety-conscious of the equestrian world. It is well known that she very rarely rides with a hat, and instead chooses to replace it with a headscarf. At the age of 85 it is wonderful that our Queen is still riding (I certainly hope to still be in the saddle at that age!), and although yes it is a risk of safety to be on a horse without a hat, if anyone is allowed it surely is the Queen. I am not in any place to tell our Queen what to do, and I am certainly not going to judge! In this photo I believe what you have to focus on is the fact that the two children are wearing helmets, one even in a body protector. This is what is important.

I may have somewhat contradicted myself here, yet my message I hope is still clear. Wearing a safety-approved hat whilst riding is perhaps one of the most important pieces of advice for any rider to listen to. There is no technical understanding about it, no complicated nonsense to get your head round, just simple pure facts – they save your lives. I can give many examples of riders who have had their lives saved by simply wearing a hat; Oliver Townend at Kentucky 2010 and Elizabeth Power at Badminton 2011 are among the recent. If Courtney King-Dye had have been wearing a hat she wouldn’t have had to go through the trauma and life-changing experience that her accident brought upon her. A year later she still isn’t back to normal – do you really want to risk that happening to you? Can you afford to ruin your life in that way, or possibly even sacrifice it? I believe the answer to that is no. No more lives should need to be affected or ruined by the lack of a hat whilst riding. They save lives – it’s a fact.