SHOWJUMPING
ONLY IN HORSE & HOUND
Nina Barbour on perception and social licence in a fast-changing world
Edited by Jennifer Donald jennifer.donald@futurenet.com @jen_donald
OPINION
SINCE 2020, life has been a rollercoaster in lots of ways for many people in our industry.
Covid, Brexit, devastating war, climate change and recession all lead to an underlying feeling of losing control of our destiny in multiple ways.
The halo effect of Covid support created a false sense of security, and in the past 12 months, reality has hit. The inevitable recession has also landed, affecting costs across the board.
I don’t think that many people realised how affected the equestrian world in the UK would be by Brexit. We all thought that deals would be done and we would quickly return to a pre-Brexit world, where horse movement between the UK, Ireland and France would once again be cheap and easy.
This just hasn’t happened and we are seeing more outward migration of top professionals to Europe than there has ever been before.
On a positive note, we are delighted at the uptake for our first two-week international tour at Bolesworth kicking off today (6 June). We are looking forward to welcoming so many Olympic-focused combinations, including notably the UAE team supported by our partners Al Shira’aa, and helped to success by trainers Will Funnell and Duncan Inglis.
It has been fantastic to be so close to their journey over the past few years, resulting in the huge achievement of qualifying for Paris this year. It is so encouraging to see these results after years of hard work and investment from HH Sheikha Fatima Bint Hazza Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and her team.
“BATTLE TO SURVIVE”
ONE of the core values that we at Bolesworth share with Al Shira’aa is love of the horse. We live in a world where there is a rising movement of unrest around the social licence to ride horses. Let’s be clear, this isn’t about whipping them or using spurs – this is a movement that believes that we shouldn’t be riding them at all.
Hunting ultimately failed in a battle to survive despite being a tradition that cont
