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SOCIAL LICENCE
‘Work with your critics, not against them’, experts advise on social licence
Openness, transparency and respecting different opinions are central to preserving equestrianism’s social license and gaining public trust. This was the overriding message to emerge from a recent webinar organised by World Horse Welfare (WHW) entitled: ‘Maintaining public acceptance of equestrianism: What can we learn from other industries?’
Public acceptance of the involvement of horses in sport and even leisure is under growing scrutiny and horse sports’ social license to operate is increasingly being challenged.
World Horse Welfare CEO Roly Owers, who chaired the webinar and introduced the speakers — all of whom had considerable and wide-ranging experience of changing opinions within their sectors — pointed out that equestrianism could learn from industries that have emerged stronger from listening to public concerns.
“Public acceptance, or social licence, is not something you can apply for, it’s an intangible, unwritten contract between society and an industry or activity; it’s a measure of trust,” he said.
Roly cited surveys that World Horse Welfare commissioned in 2022 and 2023, which revealed that 20% of the public are opposed to horses’ involvement in sport, and another 40% would only support it if horse welfare was improved.
One of the speakers, Charlie Arnot, who founded the food and agriculture PR company Look East, which helps agricultural businesses build public trust, said that he quickly realised that “attacking those who attacked us wasn’t effective” and that “we needed a different, more measured approach”. He explained that the “historical response to critics was to be aggressive”, but that agriculture, and equestrianism, should focus not on the “minority of people who sit on poles at either end of the spectrum and who are beyond inf luencing, but on the rational majority that wants to believe you’re acting in a way that’s compatible with their values and norms”.
Bob Langert, former vice-president of corporate social responsibility and sustainability for the fast food chain McDonald’s, said that his work and the equestrian industry “have many things in common”. He commented that he had learned that openness and working with your critics, rather than against them, was the key to gaining public trust.
“Be an open book. If you hide things, people think you’re doing wrong,” he said. “Fix the hole in the roof while the sun’s shining.”
He referenced McDonald’s tumble in popularity in the late 1980s.
“Until the late 1980s ever yone loved Mc
