Once upon a time, a mother was leading her seven-year-old daughter on her pony. A bird flew out of a bush; the child wobbled off, broke her neck and was paralysed.
Riding is frequently listed among high-risk sports, up there with motorsports. The obvious solution is to mitigate that risk and, indeed, equestrians have access to good safety gear.
Not so easy to address is the unpredictability of horses and what’s going on in the vicinity when riding one. So, even as we don full body armour, are we neglecting other aspects of safety?
It’s never worth intentionally risking life, however much you love the horse or however good a rider you think you are. My late mother, Mrs Molly Sivewright, a renowned expert in riding-related court cases, taught me how risk-taking ruins families, causing grief like nobody can imagine.
Having myself lost a child through a cot death, I know how fleeting life can be. Yet online I watch more and more equestrian accidents waiting to happen.
Some riders specialise too much and too soon, so they lack wide-ranging equestrian skills in different environments and over varied terrain. Likewise, some horses are trained too intensely in one discipline and thus have too narrow an education. Neither group knows how to cope in the “real world”.
How long before there’s a major accident in para dressage? Or a manslaughter charge is launched?
Horses are not robots and the overuse of calmers cannot be advocated. Of course, riding helps with disabilities, mentally and physically, but safety is paramount.
As the quest for winning equine-machines continues, and with 80% scores now required to win at Paralympic level, it’s bordering on dangerous. I worry particularly for the newer-to-the-sport nations who might try to buy medals with money, yet don’t have the safeguarding experience of more seasoned countries.
Also concerning me is how many good riders and eminent coaches post videos of schooling and teaching with arena gates and doors wide open. Clearly, riders need to enter and leave a school, but other riders should stay 10m away.
Once, while riding at a workshop, I was passing the door in counter-canter when someone opened it. My horse shot through, badly damaging my leg.
Overall, being in a hurry around horses causes many a mishap. Everyone needs to take a deep breath and slow down. Think of it as an “interval training” lifestyle.
The BHS route
How does our current British Horse Society (BHS) educational system get on the ladder for government funding by 2028 to enable school-leavers to train within the horse industry?
Students can choose GCSE PE or BTEC sport and use riding as one of their sports. However, if a student opts for a sport outside mainstream education, most schools offer little or no support in terms of guidance, facilitation or financial help.
The new government policy is “to assist young people into hard or soft hats”. The challenge is getting “equine” recognised as a valued place for training.
The BHS system is globally renowned, saluted as a prized training structure and a vital part of the equine education landscape for all ages. We must ensure it remains so for future generations.
Recently, there’s been much media attention to “new” coaching qualifications under the British Equestrian banner. They are not actually new; I did the dressage version several years ago! Each of the disciplines can now offer a unified coaching qualification that enables candidates to move from one sport to another, provided they then complete the technical qualification offered by their new sport.
Yet BHS qualifications remain the only route to a) assess competence in riding, coaching and horse care, and b) enable candidates to progress to a Fellowship (FBHS), which is widely acknowledged as the world’s highest qualification.
Like BHS qualifications, the British Equestrian Coaching Certificate will be on the national framework for qualifications, therefore ultimately regulated by government. But I still hang my hat on the BHS system because it’s all-encompassing.
Many elite coaches involved in international sport are FBHSs. Aspiring coaches with long-term goals are advised to plan their route accordingly.
● Which route into coaching and the horse industry do you think best prepares young people, and why? Let us know your thoughts at hhletters@futurenet.com, including your name, nearest town and county, for the chance to have your thoughts published in a future issue of Horse & Hound magazine
- For more exclusive insights and analysis from top names in the equestrian world, subscribe to the Horse & Hound website