Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

It is important to ensure and develop the Swedish model for riding schools, since the pupils at a Swedish riding school learn both to ride and to handle horses. There is a pronounced problem of stagnation and in some cases a reduced demand in several of the equine industry sectors including breeding with decreased coverings. The aim of this study was to cast light on how representatives from the horse industry looks at riding schools and their recruitment of horses in the next five years. The research issue was “Will there be difficulties regarding horse recruitment in 2020 and in that case, what are the consequences?”
The results of this work consist mostly of material from a workshop on how the riding school will be affected by reduced breeding in the future. The workshop was attended by representatives of different parts of the horse industry and held Feb 4, 2015 at The Swedish National Equestrian Centre Stromsholm.
It is likely that Swedish Riding Schools in 2020 will divide into different niche in terms of both activity and type of horse, to a greater extent than today's riding schools. The traditional riding schools are likely to make use of warm-blooded horses, while riding schools that have created a niche for itself moves towards a more event-based activities are likely to have a horse population of other breeds.
The economy will be a major issue as horse recruitment appears to be a difficult funding issue for the riding schools. If school horses become more expensive, the impact on lesson pricing is still slight. The survey shows that there is a demand for a Swedish breeding of school horses and ponies in a larger scale and this should take place primarily at a larger facility, such as the national equestrian centres.
In the future it is likely that the instructor is increasingly required to educate and train horses and therefore it is important that young horse training is included in the instructor's education. This is also a good reason to locate the breeding of school horses to the national equestrian centres. Regardless of breed, the main characteristic of a school horse or pony should be a good temperament and the breeding must focus on this.
The riding schools of today depend largely on imported horses in the recruitment of horses, and is therefore not directly affected by the decline in breeding in SWB. An indirect effect is plausible since nothing indicates a decline interest in horses and there is a dramatic decline in breeding in all of Europe. What may be particularly worthwhile to grasp is that it is important for the riding schools to evaluate their own activities, adapting the horses to their profile, cutting edge in terms of customer care, marketing, business intelligence and to seek new solutions to finance the school horses.