October 13, 2023 
Do you think horse prices should be published/public knowledge?
It’s no secret that equestrian sport, like many elite sports, has a lot of money involved. One thing that we have to wonder about is if there should be more cost transparency at the top levels of show jumping.
When we look at other major league sports, many have budget caps or salary caps. At the end of the day if every other sport is doing things a certain way based on feedback from their stakeholders and fans, we have to look at what we’re missing in show jumping that we won’t entertain something similar.
This doesn’t mean that all horse purchase prices need to be public domain. Far from it. But, at the FEI level, it could make a lot of sense.
Not only would it bring more acknowledgment to breeders and trainers in the sport, it can help create great narratives for fans to follow. It would also allow riders who dream of getting to that top level the information they need to figure out how to do it.
There’s a fear that publishing the purchase prices would discount riders who can afford the top horse talent. The reality is it comes down to strategy.
Buying already trained and polished equine athletes in peak condition versus buying young talent then training and polishing the horse to bring it to the top level comes down to your resources and how you allocate them strategically.
One way isn’t better than the other. However, making that information available will get fans more invested, engaged, and interested in the horse and rider teams and their journeys.
A lot of major league sports have a budget cap. Whether show jumping goes the way of baseball and doesn’t or goes the way of F1 where they introduced a cap, the first step is to make the information public domain.
At the end of the day, when every other major sports league has a level of cost transparency and is doing it a certain way—because they’ve gotten feedback from stakeholders in the sport and fans—you have to look at that and say, alright, what are we missing that we won’t consider this?
What do you think?
This post is an excerpt from the Equestrian Voices podcast and was originally published on Sean Jobin’s Facebook page. It is reprinted here with permission. Click the link to listen to the full episode: “4 Ideas to Make Show Jumping More Engaging (And Why That Matters)”
