The British Equestrian Federation and British Eventing have issued updates on their plans to safeguard equestrian sport and resume activities when restrictions can be relaxed but both warn of tough economic challenges ...
British Equestrian Federation
The British Equestrian Federation (BEF) says that it is ‘working closely with its Olympic and Paralympic governing bodies British Dressage, British Eventing and British Showjumping, in conjunction with the British Horse Council, on planning for safeguarding the viability of the sport and a resumption of activity when the government is in a position to relax coronavirus restrictions’
Each of the organisations face tough economic challenges as their main income streams, membership revenue, competition levies and sponsorship, are decimated as a result of the pandemic. All three disciplines have made use of the government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme by furloughing staff while a number of further cost savings and reductions have been made around operating costs and project deferment. The boards and management teams in each of the companies are fully committed to ensuring economic stability for their stakeholders to return to when conditions allow.
With lockdown restrictions in place until 7 May at the earliest, calls are being made for a return to competitive riding and all three organisations are working on plans for getting underway in line with any requirements set by the government. However, all are fully committed to supporting the Government’s continued message of ‘Stay at home, stay safe and support the NHS’ and will not action any return until it is safe to do so.
“There will be a period of transition as those competitive members will need to get back riding and build their personal fitness levels, as well as training their horse to be ‘competition ready’. Organisers and venues will need to make adaptations in line with any restrictions imposed by government and the competitions themselves may have alternative formats, restricted numbers and different environments to operate within social distancing parameters. Each sport is formulating and developing what will be needed to meet these requirements, as well as closely monitoring what other sports are proposing, alongside any changes in government policy” says BEF Interim Chairman Malcolm Wharton
“There is a great deal of work going on in the background by the volunteer Boards and remaining staff in the sports of dressage, eventing and show jumping and those involved are to be commended on their efforts. Collectively, we want to ensure our sports are financially secure and that, when we get to a position where competition can resume, they’re ready to go with their organisers, officials, sponsors and venues. However, we must all appreciate that that is still some time away and our immediate focus remains to support the government and the NHS by holding firm and supporting the lockdown restrictions.”
The BEF are also in constant communication with the British Horse Society, British Riding Clubs, The Pony Club, Riding for the Disabled and other sporting member bodies on their approach to financial management and any plans for resumption.
Malcolm added that “These are tough times and every single one of us has felt the impact of this pandemic in some way. We must maintain focus and work together and support one another to get through to the other side so that equestrianism can continue to flourish. We need to get riders riding, coaches coaching, businesses trading, venues running and the industry moving but only when the time is right. We all still have a social responsibility to do all we can to stop the spread and minimise the impact of the coronavirus on our health and emergency services. The work and planning in place means that, when the day comes, the equestrian world will be open for business.”
In a follow up to the BEF statement, Fiona O’Hara, Chair, British Eventing, outlined the specific challenges faced by BE
I would like to update you on these priorities, the tough decisions we have made and what to expect as we move forward.
- A great deal of work has gone into preparing a number of scenarios and we are working with organisers to ensure we have an appropriate plan in place for when we have a green light to re-start. This includes working through adjustments that can be made to run within the confines of social distancing and online streaming of larger events.
- Our main source of income is from membership and levels are decreasing. We have adopted a conservative view that this trend will continue through 2020 and we feel it is realistic to assume membership will take time to get back to current levels in 2021. We are therefore taking action to adjust costs in anticipation of a reduction in income in 2020 and 2021.
- In light of the extension to lock down and in anticipation of a gradual ease of the restrictions, we have decided to furlough more of our staff at the end of this week (in line with the government job retention scheme) and will review this as each period of furlough leave comes to an end.
- Our CEO and COO have voluntarily agreed to a reduction in pay and the Board are grateful for this demonstration of commitment to BE.
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The Board will continue to govern and set the direction for BE, specifically in the coming weeks the board will be working closely with the executive team to:
- Pursue the insurance company for the payment of abandonment monies. For those impacted by this, we will have a further update next week as we are expecting a response to our challenge by Friday.
- Oversee work on the entries and admin system (EARS)
- Planning for the future - we will look at all aspects of eventing and to help design BE for the future I have asked some of the best brains in eventing to form an advisory group to work with the Board. We will also include the ideas and feedback from the recently formed Riders Working Group to inform our thinking.
