There were a lot of important questions asked during Town Hall sessions Monday and Tuesday at the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association’s annual meeting, but they all could be boiled down to this big picture concern: “Are we doing the best thing by our horses? Are we doing the best thing by our people and our sport?”
Since USHJA was founded as an affiliate of the U.S. Equestrian Federation 20 years ago, the horse world has changed dramatically. At the same time, the universality of online videos means little goes unnoticed — or unremarked.
One of the biggest challenges involves dealing with “social license,” public acceptance of the way an organization or industry operates.
In that context, USHJA President Mary Knowlton announced she will appoint a blue ribbon commission to examine “integrity and welfare in our sport,” with a report due at the association’s mid-year meeting.
She started Tuesday’s session in Concord, N.C., by “throwing a bomb into the room,” as she put it, recounting the awful story she heard about a horse who collapsed in the stable area of an indoor show. Onlookers said people were beating and kicking the horse, throwing water on him in an effort to get him up. Mary said he had suffered an “adverse reaction to some drug” that was given to make him quiet.
“People saw this and they didn’t report it,” she said about the incident.
“Does your silence make you part of this? What are we going to do about something like that?”
Mary quoted a comment made to her a while back by Katie Benson, a member of the USHJA’s Competition Standards Committee: “When our love of winning becomes higher and more important than our love of horses, we’re in a bad place.”
Mary agreed, suggesting, “Let’s be willing to look at ourselves.”
Everyone else is looking, and that’s a problem.
Marnye Langer, who has several horse-related businesses in California, said the Los Angeles city council is seeking to ban rodeo, and along with it, use of spurs and standing martingales.
She reminded her audience of the old saying, “How goes California, so goes the rest of the country. It’s a real possibility.”
Equine welfare was discussed on many fronts, with several people mentioning the need for more drug testing at shows.
Veteran trainer Otis Brown believes “probably 30 percent of the winners” are medicated with illegal substances.
“It’s up to us to turn the people in,” he said, or to inform the Drugs & Medication Committee about “what they’re using.”
Jennifer Matts, a Zone 4 committee member, commented, “People know the drug testers leave at 2 in the afternoon and we have a $100,000 Spectacular that starts at 6.”
“I applaud the (USHJA International Hunter) Derby we have in Kentucky because they have assigned testers and vet techs to them (the horses) for the 12 hours before the competition,” she mentioned.
Jennifer has checked the trash cans around the stabling area, noting “you would be as appalled and disgusted as I am when you go through these trash cans and see what they’re doing to these animals.”
She added “We need to have some sort of tools we can use to try and curb it.”
In Canada, she said, stewards can request a drug test on a horse they suspect has been given something illegal.” But Jennifer was told that can’t be done in the U.S. because it’s considered “targeting.”
Also on the welfare front, there were comments about trying something similar to eventing’s Minimum Eligibility Requirements for riders moving up to the next level in competition. It was pointed out that would make it easier for trainers to rein in students who are eager to advance beyond their capabilities, and thus curtail the danger that presents to their horses.
The unending show schedule for many horses is a concern and the idea of mandatory retirement on course after a certain number of faults was mentioned.
USEF judge Andrea Welles suggested a “see something, say something” campaign and more severe punishment for bad sportsmanship or mistreating horses, so it affects the livelihood of the offender.
“We have to put some teeth in whatever we develop as our sportsmanship rules,” agreed Otis.
The cost of showing is an issue that sparked a dialogue. As Mary pointed out, it’s expensive to put on a horse show, and expensive to compete in one. But the point was made that to make shows more inclusive, the cost needs to be lower, and if that’s the case, more rules make the shows more costly by requiring extra people to enforce them. As Mary noted, judges and stewards may be afraid to make judgment calls; it’s easier to have rules to lean on.
Shanette Barth Cohen, who runs the Hampton Classic, suggested USHJA might be able to help shows get sponsorship outside of the usual suspects in the industry with a collective effort, or perhaps train shows on how to get sponsorship. If sponsorship increases, it might follow that exhibitors’ fees could be decreased.
As Whitney Allen, the USHJA’s director of operations pointed out, “there’s a lot of levels of complexity there” between the national and regional segments of corporations. The concept offers an opportunity to “pull together some data we’ve been lacking as an organization and as an industry” we can turn around and have these bigger national conversations about sponsorship.
Amy Center, a Florida trainer and USEF official, said “we need to mainstream our sport and make it accessible, that it’s not just for the rich little white girl. We need to make horses important to everyone. We need to change it so we have better marketing, better story lines, mass appeal.”
Active membership has remained stuck in the 36,000 range since 2008, but with Outreach for the lower levels and Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association memberships, it goes to 51,948, Mary pointed out. There was talk about how to get more people involved.
Otis figured the average age of those in the meeting room was 45.
“We are in a very bad situation. We need to figure out innovative ways to bring the younger generation into this room if we want to continue doing what we’re doing,” he said.
That concern that was brought up by others in terms of who will carry on what needs to be done for the sport after current leadership has stepped away. Otis suggested giving zone awards at a banquet during the annual meeting to get kids and their parents to attend. He also thinks giving money away for Outreach classes would help as well.
Britt McCormick, who will take over as USHJA president in December 2024, said, “One of the issues I think we have in our sport and our industry is that we have a really hard time letting go of the`what is’ and a really hard time thinking what we want this to look like in the future.
“We keep tweaking and tweaking the same old tired model that we’ve been using since the ’50s. I think this is where we as an industry voice have to stop living in the past and in some cases, stop living in the present, and start figuring out what we want this sport and this industry to look like five, 10, 20 and 50 years from now.
“We’ve reached the limits of what we can do under this current (member-driven) business model, and it’s starting to fail.”
He added, “There are barriers to entry on the participation level and people are finding other places to spend those recreation dollars and at the end of the day, that’s what we’re competing for, is that recreational dollar all the way across the country. We just happen to use horses.”
He has suggested changing the business model to something “more expansive and global, so instead of trying to fill a stadium full of members, we need to fill that stadium full of fans and sponsors and supporters who want to watch our limited number of exhibitors.
“We have to figure out a way to take the media opportunities we have,” to use those through USHJA and the federation ”to help get more people to shows, not just to compete, but to watch. Until you have butts in seats, that advertiser isn’t going to give you any money to put on that event.”
Britt said USHJA has to work with its affiliates and pool resources for the greater good. The effort also will require assistance from USEF.
“If we can get this new thought process started…it will trickle down to the competition level and that is where we’re finally going to be able to break through to the next business model.”
That needs to be done by figuring out a new business model in cooperation with the affiliates, the federation and the membership. “Otherwise,” Britt contended, “we’re done.”