Earlier in June, British Equestrian and its 18 member bodies released their pledge to make equestrian activity more accessible and welcoming to all, with a primary focus on promoting equality, diversity and inclusion. Today, we’ve launched a major research project which aims to discover the barriers to participate in equestrian sport and activity from the perspective of ethnically diverse communities and or those from a low socio-economic background – look out for the hashtag #HorsesForAll.
British Equestrian knows these groups are under-represented across equestrian sport and we’re encouraging anyone in the target profiles to give their views and experiences to help us make the industry more diverse, inclusive and accessible for everyone.
Working with selected partner AKD Solutions, the qualitative and quantitative data collection phase of our research piece, ‘Barriers to Participate in Equestrianism’, is now underway. A target response rate of 1000 participants has been set across a number of mediums including interviews both in person and online as well as an online questionnaire. The national campaign is looking for anyone in our target groups to take part – including those who ride, those who’ve had some interaction in equine activity and those who’ve never thought of horse or riding as something to try. The online survey explores respondents’ interest in physical/leisure activities in general, familiarity and experience of equestrianism, accessibility to participate and knowledge of work and opportunities in the equine sector.
Mandana Mehran Pour, British Equestrian’s Head of Participation commented; “This piece of research will go a long way to helping us and our member bodies to make equestrianism more accessible and inclusive. We’re excited to conduct this important piece of research and look forward to learning how we can adapt and improve the experiences of those who do not feel equestrian activity is for them, as well as hearing from those who are involved in equestrian and would like to share their experiences. Everyone deserves to experience the magic of the equine/human bond and the benefits interacting with horses brings, help us to make that possible by getting involved and insuring we deliver on our pledge.”
The ten-minute-long online survey is now live and the face-to-face sessions will take place in a number of targeted urban and rural locations – if you’re interested in taking part, you can register digitally. We’ll be promoting the research across a range of media to get as wide a reach as possible – keep an eye out for the hashtag #HorsesForAll as call for respondents and keep followers informed on the progress of this landmark project.