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Director of Policy and Campaigns at Historic Houses Association, Emma Robinson’s blog for the project, Looking at old ground in a new way

By Daisy Voake, on 19 July 2017

‘Horses and houses – exploring the synergies between historic houses and equestrian sport’

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What do horses and ha-has have in common? Not much, you might think. But, as I discovered one very wet day in May, it turns out equestrian sport and historic house landscapes are inextricably intertwined.

The interrelationship of equestrian sport and the historic house estate is not new; from jousting in the Middle Ages, to modern equestrian sports such as carriage driving and eventing, beautiful historic house landscapes have long provided the setting for major horse sport events. What is perhaps surprising, and often overlooked, is the scale of this relationship in the 21st century – and the potential to develop the partnership between horse and house for mutual benefit.

Take Burghley House in Lincolnshire, for example, where on that damp day in May UCL ISH brought together a motley crew of heritage and equine business managers, a geophysicist, an archaeologist, an equine biomechanist and a policy wonk, to investigate the synergies between heritage and sport science. Horse trials have been held at Burghley since 1961, at the instigation of former owner the 6th Marquess of Exeter, an Olympic gold medallist in athletics. Today, Burghley’s Horse Trials are one of only six leading (e.g. 4*) three day events in the world – two of which are in Britain (the other being Badminton Horse Trials, which also takes place in the setting of a nationally important historic house). Burghley Horse Trials attracts around 165,000 spectators every year and induces spending in the local Lincolnshire economy estimated at £16.3 million, whilst generating some income for essential repairs, maintenance and conservation work at Burghley House.

It’s a similar story at other independent historic houses across the country, such as Blenheim Palace, Blair Castle and Gatcombe Park, which all run horse trials events. These popular events (over 17 million people are interested in equestrian sport, and over 4.5 million people ride regularly[1]) generate essential revenue for historic house estates, which helps to fund ongoing repair and maintenance work on the house, park and wider landscape. In turn, the magical surroundings of an historic house landscape provide a suitably dramatic backdrop for testing horse and rider to the limit.

And if equestrian sport is popular, heritage is even more so. There are over 61 million visits to historic properties each year[2], and 93 per cent of people think local heritage has an impact on their personal quality of life.[3] Nearly four times more people visited heritage attractions in 2016 than attended league and championship football matches[4]. Put two and two together, and it’s clear there is potential for equestrian sport and heritage attractions to collaborate to develop their economic, social and cultural offer.

On that May day at Burghley, the interdisciplinary team brought together by UCL ISH sought to explore that potential. Leading equine biomechanics expert Russell Guire delivered a session on using gait and rider analysis to evaluate a horse’s impact on surfaces, and Neil Linford, Senior Geophysicist at Historic England, discussed how heritage science could be used to improve the sustainability of historic landscapes used by equestrian sports. We hope this innovative study will identify the potential risks and mitigations to be addressed when integrating permanent equestrian sports surfaces into historic landscapes; and, ultimately, will enable the equestrian sector and the heritage sector to work together to develop and grow the success of horse trials events at historic house estates.

The potential impact on policy development at both a national and a local level is significant – from closer collaboration between government and agency teams responsible for developing the potential of the heritage and sports sectors, to better informed decision-making at a local level.

Ultimately, both historic house visitor attractions and equestrian sporting events are essential contributors to our economy and our society. Enabling them to develop their partnership for mutual benefit would be an important step forward in support of national heritage, sport and tourism policy priorities.

 

Emma Robinson
Director of Policy & Campaigns
Historic Houses Association
June 2017

 

[1] https://www.britisheventing.com/library-media/documents/Under_18_Open_Novice_lr.pdf

[2] https://content.historicengland.org.uk/content/heritage-counts/pub/2016/heritage-indicators-2016.pdf

[3] https://content.historicengland.org.uk/content/heritage-counts/pub/2016/heritage-and-society-2016.pdf

[4] https://content.historicengland.org.uk/content/heritage-counts/pub/2016/heritage-indicators-2016.pdf

 

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