Why Don’t Equestrians Want To Do Interviews?

I was at a party a couple nights ago that was attended by journalists and broadcasters.  Many of them had been involved with coverage of this year’s Olympic Games. “Why don’t equestrians want to do interviews?”, I was asked three times during the evening. I was as stumped for an answer as they were by whatever circumstances had prompted them to ask the question.

 

This question came from people who cover athletes in all sports. They are people with years of experience doing so. So that means they have a good measuring stick against which to judge  equestrians.

 

The fact that this question would come up repeatedly in one evening should concern the equestrian community greatly. Such a reputation should be unacceptable to any sport’s leadership.

 

Not wanting to do interviews reduces visibility and, hence, reduces interest from sponsors. But, the questions that accompany this reputation are serious and can cause future problems. Any skilled journalist will ask themselves, “Do these people have something to hide?”  Then, of course, they will start looking for what that “something” might be. 

 

The other question it raises, in equestrian sport, that it might not raise in another, is the question of elitism. “Are these people just so rich and snobby that they feel they don’t need the benefits that come with media coverage and don’t care about their fans?”  That will make the media, in general, lose interest fast.

 

So you might argue that it was only three journalists that raised the question. But it was all in one evening in a room full of quality, experienced journalists. 

 

“Be accessible” is near the top of my list of media tips for anyone.

Show or Tournament?

Words create pictures and images. Sometimes words that mean one thing to one group of people means something entirely different to the general population.

Just like the word “equestrian” has multiple meanings, as illustrated in my last post, many other common show jumping terms do not create an accurate picture in a listener’s or reader’s mind. 

Show jumping is an Olympic sport. It is a professional sport. Though some of the uninitiated don’t think so, show jumping riders are athletes. Why then would Olympic-calibre and/or professional competition be called a “show”?

Riders start out, usually as children, competing at horse shows. In times gone by, most of these included competitions in which horses were judged only for their appearance. The latter is what a member of the general public would likely picture when they hear the words “horse show”. They would picture something similar to a dog show. However, no other Olympic sport or professional sport uses the world “show” to describe their competitions. Afterall, they are competitions, not shows. If these riders are athletes, why are they deemed to be “showing the horse”.

Unfortunately, when they reach the Olympic level, it is still common for riders to use the terminology with which they grew up. Hence, they call their competitions “shows”. Even worse, from a marketing standpoint, many competitions have official names that include the words “horse show”.

This is just another example of terminology that does not depict the sport to be what it truly is. As a result it can be confusing to the media and the general public.

Media relations is partly image-making. Terminology is a big part of that.