DEI is an interesting topic, and potentially worth of discussion, but yeah…saying USEF/equestrian sport is already diverse…hard to believe anyone could possibly believe that? Maybe the same people who hear the term “white privilege” and say “what? I’m not privileged! I’m poor! I have student loans! I struggle to pay my rent!”
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Back to USEF: On the “About Us” page, the list of things they do includes this at the very end: US Equestrian contributes to the greater good of horses by assisting with their protection and welfare in crisis situations and natural disasters, as well as in daily competition. As part of this pledge to protect equine welfare, US Equestrian continues to help support federal and state governments and works closely with other national equine organizations.
Further digging shows they have something called the Disaster Relief Fund which is dedicated to the above situations. It is an Account on their books and is funded by donations specified for that purpose. I didn’t dig thoroughly into their financials but a cursory review shows no breakout of this fund. There is no indication that any funding is from their general operating cash flow.
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Other folks have stated this as well, but USEF’s mission statement is: “To Provide Access to and Increase Participation in Equestrian Sports at All Levels by Ensuring Fairness, Safety, and Enjoyment”.
It would be lovely if an organization would help subsidize our horses. Beyond retirement of horses, there are many people who could use financial aid for board, shoes, vet bills, etc for their horses of all ages.
Horse welfare is a piece of USEF’s mission, but their primary goal is to ensure that the horse show business stays alive and that as many people as possible become involved in horse showing.
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LOL yes, especially for a membership fee of $80 a year. That should go a long way, right? Maybe would be enough for a flake of hay with the “profit”.
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Exactly! 
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I have a horse that has been retired for close to 10 years.
When he first retired, he probably could’ve done light hacking, but I had another horse to ride in lessons, etc., and I didn’t really want the liability or the interpersonal complications of leasing. I did try it, and I didn’t care for it.
I took him home and even then, it’s been very expensive. I had an opportunity many do not (to bring him home). This isn’t a post about judging anyone for different choices.
I certainly couldn’t ride him at his age now.
Caring for him all of these years is probably one of the things I am most happy that I did. I guess in a way I have proven to myself that I am capable of a level of commitment that I didn’t know I had when I got him, many years ago.
An organization would go broke taking horses and providing care like that. In any kind of volume the cost would be huge. There are two options that are socially acceptable. One is to provide care to aged horses, and the other is to have them euthanized.
I know that this won’t be well received by most on this forum, but I can’t help but think that it’s a shame to view horses as only worthy of keeping around if they can be ridden. I personally would’ve been horrified to euthanize my boy when he was still happy and enjoying pottering around his pasture.
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Your horse, your retirement problem.
It is not equestrian governing bodies and the fees paid by their membership responsibility to assist you with the management of your personal possession.
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Agreed
On what planet?
Lack of inclusion is not always an obvious incident of racism or sexism or any other ism. It involves an underlying stigma and is evident in equestrian sports by the extreme lack of representation of a number of minorities. I have no idea where you live, but I feel I can safely say that many, if not most, other horse people do not regularly see persons of “every race, creed, ethnicity, religion” at their barns or shows or events.
The DEI is in place for humans. “Diversity and inclusion are fundamental to US Equestrian’s vision: To bring the joy of horse sports to as many people as possible.”
But even if it were “for horses” as well - exactly what “opportunities” do you think competition horses are awarded by the USEF that retired horses are not?
Your stance on the DEI screams privilege. Might be good to get out of your bubble once in a while and experience the rest of the world.
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Well if you want USEF to pay for your horse’s retirement, why not have them pay for your horse board too? I mean, not everyone can afford a place to keep their horse, so maybe the USEF should just pay for it. And they should probably pay for hay and grain too. Not everyone can afford that. And you don’t want horses without food and shelter - that’s just inhumane and really important for the welfare of the horse.
Where do you draw the line???
Why is it the responsibility of the USEF to pay for your hobby? Yes, your horse is a hobby, even when they are retired. And if they can no longer be ridden, then I agree with @endlessclimb they should be put down. Some people might find that crude, but it’s cost effective.
If you can’t afford your horse, then don’t have one. Or sell it. Or put it down. Any other option than asking for a handout for a luxury hobby.
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I’ve been discussing this with a couple of friends. While we are fortunate to be able to provide for our horses until their end comes, and are committed to the journey. Not everyone is. I think part of it is a lack of realization (or maybe I just hope it is). Horses last longer than other amusements we may have had, perhaps outgrown or become disinterested in. Even if we adore them, to what extent do we plan for their soft landing upon retirement?
My controversial and probably impossible notion is that the organizations that we must become members of for whatever our disciplines are, the breed organizations and anything else like that should, as part of the registration process provide information on making plans for your horse’s retirement, and perhaps even require a plan to be filed with the organization detailing what will be done by you for your horse. If the horse changes hands, another plan has to be filed. I’m not necessarily trying to put the organizations on the hook for enforcement (although that might be nice). What I’m suggesting is building awareness of what it means to own a horse.
Flame suit zipped!
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I love the idea of providing information and connecting people with resources before they need them. Maybe a percentage of entry fees at each show could be donated to a specific retirement farm or horse welfare organization in the local area.
Requiring people to file plans or launching some kind of “enforcement” initiative… that seems both logistically impossible and like an overreach. Horses change ownership all the time. Circumstances change. We absolutely need to plan for that, but having competitive governing bodies actively intervening in that like some kind of Big Brother doesn’t seem like an appropriate solution, either.
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Except that that’s equality, not equity. Equality is treating everyone the same, equity is making sure that we all start from an equal place, even if some need more help to do that. Think accommodations on exams - they are supposed to level the playing field, not treat everyone the same. If you treat everyone the same then those who started ahead will stay ahead. Equity in terms of the horse industry means boosting people up so that they can be involved when otherwise they may not have been able to be involved at all. For horses…I don’t even know what that entails. None of this means you have to own the horse.
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Hi all, been reading all the comments and glad people are interested enough to do so. Couple of things. First, I should have exolained that I was not suggesting USEF totally take over retirement for any horse, but that maybe they could assist members with the cost of it. On euthanasia, might work for some but not for most. We love our critters and most owners could not and would not do this. But that is just the difference in people, does NOT make a person bad or good, just human.
Money. This is the thing that keeps people out of our sport. The cost and committment to owning a horse is just more then most people are interested in doing. In my opinion, interest in having, owning, riding a horse is just not that universal. And sadly, our world is rapidly taking away land use for horse activities including the growing of feed. The comment on trying to do much on an $80 membership fee, could we look at a broader picture here? USEF has approximatey 190,000 members. Say 160,000 of them paid $80. Right now there are 3000 horses showing, every week in California and in Florida maybe even more. At a minimum of $9 per horse that seems like quite a bit of money & it is happening about every week of the year. They have corporate sponsorship, payment for show registrations, medal class fees, and other small fees bringing in money as well USEF pays their CEO $450,000 a year, is that justified? I only want to point out that USEF gets a lot of money and again, IN MY OPINION, a fund to assist member/rider/owners with something like this doesn’t seem impossible if the person can justify the need for some help. I also know that according to their statistics, USEF members have an average income of $185,000 per year and USHJA has $150,000 as their member average. So I don’t see a lot of people needing help.
Schoolmaster, questions? have you watched any of the meetings of the DEI committees?? Have you had a chance to find out what these committes have done so far and what they plan to do in the future? You mentioned you have a group of 29 people going to work on DEI. May I please inquire, what is your plan of acion for this group?? Do you have plans for making our sport more DEI?? How?
Are you aware that 85% of the USEF membership is female? Are you going to work to make that ratio more equitable? Again I will state in my opinion that our sport has always been Diverse, Equitable and Inclusive and does not need to waste money on committees to fix what is not broken., The biggest reason for not coming in to our sport is money! I know you disagree with me, so will you please explain clearly to me why you think we need this. Please, no generalities, be specific so I ca n respond.
Lastly, if USEF is giving out money to get more horse people, and they will pay to help them get involved in the show world, what is the difference between that and helping people already involved with one of their problems?.
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Your opinion is woefully and willfully ignorant.
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Ultimately a horse a personal or business possession. Its your responsibility to maintain it. As its a living animal there are accepted standards of care/standard industry practice. END OF STORY.
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Why stop at retirement?? They should provide competition horses, pay their board and all their vet bills to everyone that wants to compete too!! /s
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Gender is only one small part of equity. But if you found that somehow biases were preventing men from joining the sport, wouldn’t you think it should be addressed? What about other biases - race/ethnicity? Certainly you can’t suggest that USEF is “diverse” in those terms.
Is this for me?
Without a full understanding of their mission, revenue, expenses and overhead, none of this is relevant. Is $450,000 too much for the CEO? I don’t know. Maybe not. Depends on what kind of skill set is necessary to run an organization that size. What are their liabilities? How many staff do they have on their payroll? Do they have facilities, equipment, etc. I know that USEF offers members insurance, but their own insurance policies must be massive. So, it’s impossible for any of us to sit back and judge.
My own organization is 85% salaries and benefits, 4% rent, 4% overhead. We have very little discretionary money to work with. People might think that our budget sounds big, but they don’t have to pay people and provide benefits.
I think you seem unusually fixated on the expense of DEI. In a $14M budget, $50k is loose change. And if the expense ensures bias free decision making on behalf of the organization, why wouldn’t you think that’s money worth spending?
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mmeqcenter, may I respectfully ask, based on what info are you stating this. And may I also ask, why you felt the need to call me ignorant? You are certainly welcome to disagree with me, but could you just say that and then state why?
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Y’all, don’t feed the troll.
This thread popping up with the hottest take I’ve ever seen, all while the discussion on helmet design and inclusion is ongoing, isn’t a coincidence.
No one is actually making this argument. Yikes.
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