Understanding What Affects Acceptance of Equestrian Sport - New large-scale research is aimed at digging deeper into what goes into forming public opinion.

New World Horse Welfare research involving more than 5,000 people has aimed to distil what drives public acceptance in horse sports.The project, supported by The Racing Foundation, moves the conversation around public acceptance forward.World Horse Welfare CEO Roly Owers presented the project at The Racing Foundation conference at Ascot racecourse on 2 October.

- By Lucy Elder

New World Horse Welfare research involving more than 5,000 people has aimed to distil what drives public acceptance in horse sports.

The project, supported by The Racing Foundation, moves the conversation around public acceptance forward.

World Horse Welfare CEO Roly Owers presented the project at The Racing Foundation conference at Ascot racecourse on 2 October.

Participants were asked questions relating to trust and acceptance, which were based on the results of interviews with horse sport stakeholders, and work in other industries.

Mr Owers said the firm that carried out the work has undertaken sophisticated analysis on the results.

The methodology they adopted has been widely and successfully used in other sectors with public acceptance issues, he said.

On a scale of one to five, the topics of trust in horse sport overall and acceptance of horse sport overall were both a little above three.