Maria Partlow, the U.S. Equestrian Federation\’s senior vice president for marketing, unveiled the results of the demographic study they performed last year at the federation\’s midyear Board of Directors meeting on July 12. It was the first such study done by the federation in eight years.
The numbers show that 85 percent of the USEF\’s 84,000 members are women, with the largest single percentage (32%) between the ages of 35 and 50. The next largest group is the juniors (23%), but almost as many members (22%) are between 50 and 65 years old. Another 19 percent are 18 to 34.
Of those members, 25 percent own five or more horse, with the mean number of horses owned being two.
And they love all kinds of pets. An astounding 94 percent own a pet other than a horse—an average of 2.1 cats, 2.0 dogs and 1.5 “other pets.”
They can afford it too. Some 38 percent have a net worth of more than $500,000, and the average value of their home when the survey was done last fall was $594,000.
But USEF members aren\’t spending all their time in those houses. In 2004 the average member spent 30 nights in a hotel (12 of those for competitions) and made 23 domestic trips and two foreign trips. About 25 percent flew business or first class, and 9 percent (about 7,500 members have used either a charter or private aircraft.
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Not surprisingly, warmbloods are the most popular breed (36%), with 28 percent owning Thoroughbreds and 19 percent owning Arabians or half-Arabians.
Some 41 percent compete those horses in dressage, 37 percent in hunters, 26 percent in show jumping, 16 percent in eventing, and 13 percent in trail riding or hunting.
Debbie McDonald was the most popular equestrian (8 percent named her), 1 percent more than named USEF President David O\’Connor and his wife, Karen. Margie Engle came in third, with 4 percent.
And an astounding 84 percent named Rolex as a sponsor of equestrian sports when asked to name a sponsor. Rolex has sponsored the Kentucky CCI**** for 25 years, along with other horse trials and grand prix events.
Partlow noted that many of these numbers differ rather substantially from those released in early July by the American Horse Council in its economic-impact study.
“I would caution making generalities about all of horse sports based on the USEF research figures because the universe polled was specifically USEF members from our database,” said Partlow. “This data would change substantially if other constituencies, such as members of specific breed or discipline affiliates, were asked these same questions.”
