Everyone involved in the horse industry, be it as an owner, competitor, facility manager, discipline specialist, trainer, coach, official, business owner, recreational rider, or any of a myriad of other roles, faces both daily and long-term challenges in sustaining their particular equine pursuits. Those responsibilities, including routine care of the horse, often have an immediacy that monopolises our attention and obscures our view of the big picture. In fact, underlying our focused engagement there are themes that are common to all of us and they require our collective attention. At stake are both the welfare and wellbeing of the horse and the long-term health and growth of our industry in all sectors.

First among these themes is, of course, the horse. Ultimately, it’s all about the horse. And, it is also about issues that affect all of us, such as how we recruit young people to join us with their youthful energy and ideas for the future, how we build support for our industry among those presently on our periphery, and about how we build standards into our industry to keep us abreast of legislation, societal expectation, best practices, and fiscal realities. Better yet, how do we get ahead and lead rather than react or follow, and how do we stay ahead?

Discussing these and many other issues, without primary reference to any discipline boundaries, is something in which we all need to engage. That’s what this industry initiative is about: coming together and sharing ideas, insights and energy, exploring commonalities, and identifying collective solutions. We have so much to gain with a common vision!