“First we now have to do the appropriate factor, second we now have to speak about it” – was the straightforward message from a seminar on talk on the equine business.
Consultants from World Horse Welfare and the FEI have been among the many audio system on the European Horse Community-hosted seminar on date.
Haike Blaauw, managing director on the the Federation of Dutch Equestrian Facilities (FNRS) mentioned it’s “extra essential than ever earlier than” for equestrianism “to be seen in a optimistic means”.
“However initially, you need to do the appropriate issues – after which you need to talk about it,” he mentioned.
“Each three years we do analysis within the Netherlands concerning the sport, the general public assist of horse sports activities and retaining horses.
“What we see within the Netherlands is that there’s nonetheless massive assist for retaining horses by people, however the assist is reducing slowly however certainly. And the identical is true for the general public assist in society for horse sports activities.”
He added that the analysis discovered that sturdy supporters are “very acquainted” with horse sport, whereas the sturdy opposers will not be. This shaped the premise of a public marketing campaign, encouraging private storytelling by all these concerned within the business to share private and galvanizing tales, with the message that “that is what horses do in Paris”.
FEI communications director Olivia Robinson mentioned it’s “essential” for the horse world “to be real, clear, sincere and accountable”.
“From my humble opinion, there may be loads of studying to be executed by way of being accountable within the sense that it’s okay to confess to errors or shortcomings or to take a look at areas to be strengthened, as a result of that is how issues evolve,” mentioned Ms Robinson. “It’s a query of taking inventory and never all the time endorsing the established order, however considering ‘How can we do that higher?’ For me, that’s an enormous signal of energy, as a result of it reveals that we might be trusted to self-regulate and that’s what society desires to see.
“Accountability is without doubt one of the key areas by way of sustaining our social licence to function.”
She added the horse world ought to take this summer time’s Olympics as an actual alternative to current good tales.
“It’s our job to earn the belief of the general public and never the opposite means spherical,” mentioned Ms Robinson.
“We have to work intently, to be united and constant in our messaging, to share assets, experience, tales, science and analysis.
“Now we have an incredible quantity of collective data inside our industries and sometimes my expertise is that generally we’re all working in separate bubbles, after we could possibly be utilizing economies of scale and actually sharing higher.”
She added: “This actually just isn’t a PR train. It’s about strolling the speak. We have to embrace scrutiny, and never shrink back from it or deny it, and we have to champion change.”
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