'Will there be any riding schools left?'

Pammy Hutton on the current challenges faced by the equestrian industry

- Oscar Williams

“WHAT is the future of dressage?” It’s the question that continues to dominate worldwide. Amid the calls for horses not to be used in sport and for barefoot and bitless, many who are closely involved with the sport at all levels – and who understand the real issues – struggle to make headway against a rising tide of ever-louder but anonymous opinions.

There’s a strong push for the FEI to lead publicly. But a planned meeting with dressage stakeholders is not due until after the €400,000 (£342,000) prize-funded World Cup Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, next month. Many feel the timing lacks any sense of urgency.

It’s also a strange choice of location for a welfare-based summit when Saudi Arabia currently has one of the worst equine doping records of any FEI-participating nation.

HIGHER OVERHEADS

MY friend Tim Downes and I are talking again about hacking to 10 Downing Street to get the plight of riding schools noticed by those who could help.

Riding schools are the bedrock of UK equestrianism, particularly for first-generation riders, and many second-generation riders also use riding schools to further their development.