‘The industry needs to act fast’

Nina Barbour on perception and social licence in a fast-changing world

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SINCE 2020, life has been a roller-coaster 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 preBrexit 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.