Forbes writes out the marketing playbook for Equestrian Sports

What will make the sport of show jumping gain critical mass? It’s a question marketing writer Mark Fidelman tackled earlier this week in the online edition of Forbes magazine. Which, arguably, is a good sign that the sport is indeed creeping into the mainstream consciousness already. The Forbes marketing expert went on to share his four tips for making show jumping the next greatest sport. In a nutshell: 1. Make the sport television friendly. 2. Encourage riders to become social athletes. 3. Form collaborations between the USEF, horse shows and equestrian media to make equine and equestrian athletes famous outside the show jumping world. 4. Find a “Red Bull-like” media sponsor. But convince yourself and read the text here ... The thing you need to understand, the thing about showjumping, is not how athletic the horses are, it’s how athletic the riders need to be. That may not be obvious to you — don’t the riders need to just hang on? But then, you’ve probably never cleared a fence with a horse. The riders do matter. You and I can’t imagine how difficult it is to get a large animal to jump an obstacle course of 5 foot high fences.  It’s both a physical and psychological Rube Goldberg event which appears simple, but requires nearly a perfect chain reaction of complicated and tortuously difficult tasks. It explains why riders can earn millions in prize money at the world’s top equestrian events despite catering to a smaller, but wealthier audience. At the recent Longines Master in Los Angeles, a first time attendee asked me, “Why do only the rich appreciate the sport? Does it cost a lot of money to watch? Is it expensive to participate? Why aren’t the top showjumpers household names? And, why aren’t the horses household names?” Well, as it turns out, those are some of the questions on everyone’s mind. In the past, showjumping professionals advocated for mystery, for intrigue, for the appeal to the wealthy class – the showjumping life was a series of unlabeled stalls. But today, if your fans don’t know who is in the stalls, they won’t pay attention.