Look after the owners to keep our top horses

[JayCeeme]

Has anybody else got good ideas for keeping top horses in the country? I agree with Tim Stockdale and Graham Fletcher that more needs to be done to encourage the owners.

Giving the top 50 owners tickets and hospitality is a nod in the right direction but hardly enough for them to resist a really good offer for a really good horse.

There were some excellent ideas regarding syndicates and sponsorships from the owner/writer of The Letter of the Week who has got some more?

 

[BBH]

I personally don't think its all just down to the event organisers, BSJA, FEI or any formal body , from my personal experience of having a horse with a top rider there are things closer to home that can be done to make the ownership experience more rewarding. Riders ( in some cases) need to treat their owners as more than just a nuisance. IME don't ignore calls from owners who want to know how their horse is doing, treat women with more respect, not all woman are fair game, have some respect ( if a woman has the money to fund a horse the chances are she has a business brain to have earnt her money and won't appreciate clumsy sexual advances ) Be very straight and open about money and not use every opportunity to rip someone off , don't say you have bought a horse from the continent for £ 30,000 for the owner to find out it cost £ 7,000 from a girl in the next village. They could also broaden their appeal by not constantly fishing to find out how much money an owner has. Unfortunately if you have a bad experience with one rider and you're new to the sport it puts you off everyone and you keep your money in your pocket.

There needs to be a recognised body with teeth to arbitrate problems as there are too many stories of legal disputes that cannot be resolved.

In fact all in all the showjumping horses are fabulous but if only they came without the riders. I would say foreign riders have a
far greater respect for their owners and understand how to look after them not in terms of material give aways but they value and nurture them, spending time involving the owner, Oh and the costs are cheaper.

Another factor is that showjumping is boring if you watch more than half a dozen rounds.


Ok enough negative stuff, how to increase appeal,

Lose its ' sleezy' image,
Offer larger prize money at a few key events,
Offer showground prizes for the public ie scratchcards for that day where the winner gets to meet a top rider after the show, a rug of their choice etc etc. All the revenue generated could be used for the development of key riders or put towards nationally owned horses rather than individually owned horses.
Change the show format so owners aren't hanging around for hours in damp cold conditions to see a horse in the ring for a couple of mins.
Get betting going,
Get some personalities in the papers for stuff other than sex and court cases ( yes I know these sell but Sophie Christensen managed to get in the papers with Paul McCartney without taking her clothes off )
Teach your riders how to interact with owners and how to run a business, its not enough these days to just be able to ride,
Sponsers are going to need people who can put a sentence together / hold conversation, inspire others abort their product / service.
The horse world is so far removed from todays modern business thinking that there are very few quick fixes. There needs to be a task force of business brains to bring the sport back to the top again.

 

[cefyl]

My husband has looked at various equine sports over the past few years to "invest" in as an owner. As a shrewd business person and financial investor spending most of his time in the UK he firstly looked at show jumping. This was after being impressed with the competitions he experienced as a guest of owners on the continent at events there.

He decided against sj, and any UK / Rider combination in any equine sport (except racing), why? :-

SJ he deemed to be controlled by a few of the elite "old names" who did not have particularly good PR skills. Generally he thought it a circus, and not a particularly classy on at that. The chances are of getting a class animal to major events abroad regardless of a major financial input was dependant on buying for a Whittaker / Skelton / Smith as he saw it.

Dressage (boring to watch for him, not me though) but again ditto on the rider issue. Seemingly had to buy for a "face", younger riders said they stood little chance of breaking into team for the forseable future.

Eventing - as he said ruled by an "old boys club", M-S / Capt. P are pompus asses and in what was prophetic foresight predicted BE being ruled by one or both of these.

He has many aquaintances in UK eventing and some in SJ and feels there is such a class divide between eventing (snobbery and old money), dressage (new money and too much bling), SJ (what to do if you cannot afford eventing or dressage and cannot be bothered to train - his words not mine!).

Racing - route to take for "owner satisfaction".

Now he would not consider any equine sport but for it being my "thing". Amount to invest? Well as his own sport is yacht racing he can never say anything equine costs too much!!! However he does look at it from a businessman's view he sees UK equine sport as a closed shop. If he had a choice of country for ownership it would be firstly Germany, maybe followed by France, Holland and the USA (as a US citizen) just from the quality of events and status of equine sport in general.

 

[lucretia]

i do agree that something needs to be done and secret santa does make some good points though also some rather sweeping generalisations. cefyl's view point is interesting and certainly how many 'monied potential owners' view equestrian sport in this country. in europe showjumping particularly has a higher profile than most racing and the prize money, facilities and perks for owners, riders and other connections generally reflects this.
the equine pathway is designed to spot the best potentil horses here and clearly helps encourage owners but i have reservations about its link to the world class rider programme because as these thinga are publically funded it will be hard to justify a horse's continued inclusion in the programme if not ridden by a rider on world class, because with horses it is about the partnership and once past a certain level i think the owners of these horses will be encouraged to send them to those riders on funded schemes, other wise why bother having separate schemes. as i said equine sports are about a PAIR of athletes. the eqine pathway is not far enough developed to see if this concern becomes a reality but if it does obviously owners will be even less inclined to support anyone other than a 'name' rider.
I do think that it is hard to be an owner these days, but the riders job is also difficult and they are under much pressure without the worries their top horses might be sold on or moved. and i do think often all parties could and should be better advised by their ruling bodies in how to handle each other, the press and similar persons.

 

[flohelf]

Lu, what you're saying about the continent (which is vast !) sounds much better than reality to me... and therefore a generalization that does not reflect each national/local situation (france, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, NL, etc... all handle and 'manage' the sport very differently)
As far as SJ goes about having a higher profile: In the media and the general public, barely... And here, all the money from owners goes into racing.

 

[Gonetofrance]

The biggest difference is that racing can afford to look after it's owners as it is an industry, not a sport as such.
There is also the attraction of gambling, a major plus for the majority of owners, unless they fall into the owner/breeder category (though they wouldn't sniff at landing a touch either).
Someone I knew well at the time had a horse win Badminton. HT forgot to invite them in for the presentation......... how bad can it get??? It certainly put those owners off supporting the sport when they were feted for owning a good horse, and then ignored at the moment it was most important to them...........