They Wonder Why Equestrian Sport Doesn’t Get Media Coverage!

I often hear members of the equestrian community complain about the amount and quality of media coverage that show jumping receives. When there is negative coverage of any kind, they typically blame the messenger. Having witnessed this, time and time again, from two different vantage points, I am more likely to be amazed when it does get any coverage.

The people who run show jumping tournaments, who govern the sport, and who speak for the sport, seldom give the media any incentive to bother. I have been both a journalist covering the sport and a publicist representing the most high-profile figures in the sport. I recently tried to obtain results from a tournament that is sanctioned to host a World Cup Qualifier. One would expect that in order to be sanctioned in that way, a federation would require the tournament to have a good media relations policy. Federations in most sports would.

The management of the tournament in question did not answer their telephone or respond to e-mails for a three-week period. During two of those three weeks, the tournament was underway. Nearly a week after the tournament ended, I received a response on Facebook, rather than by phone or e-mail. This response complained about my requests for results and complained that I had told my readers that I was unable to obtain them.

The management of this tournament should consider it to be a lesson learned. If you treat the media like a nuisance, they will react in one of two ways. They will go away completely – leaving you to complain about no coverage. Or, they may become more of nuisance because you put their credibility on the line and force them to explain the absence of some information to their readers. You may consider this bad coverage. But, as I have written before, most negative coverage is preventable.

This incident is only one of many similar ones that I have encountered. They continually remind me that this sport has a lot of growing up to do to become “big league” sport. Many sports federations require media training for their members. Many sports federations dictate standards of media services to their member events. Even if a federation does not want to promote consistency and professionalism within the sport, it is in the best interests of all events and individual members to refrain from treating the media like a nuisance and then complaining about what ends up in print.