2002 World Equestrian Games

The German PR Machine - Equestrian PR

Hartwig points out that there are some very good equestrian public relation organizations in Europe, most notably in Sweden and The Netherlands. "But most other countries are not so powerful. The organizations have nothing to do. You need power. It's a question of structure," said Hartwig. The most important work an equestrian PR agency can do according to Hartwig is to give the people on the outside world a look inside the horse world and to also provide the people inside the equestrian community with information that tells them what the outside world thinks of them. "It's not easy," he adds.

It's also not easy to count the success of public relations, and therefore not easy to provide correlating budget. For the German organization, "It's much less than you think!" laughed Hartwig. "You can count wins, but it's not easy to count success. We have a good TV situation," said Hartwig, adding that Germany has more than 300 hours of televised horse sports. He estimates that there is between 5% and 10% growth each year in the amount of coverage and publicity horse sports receive in Germany. "We have lots of magazines, more than 60 in German." There are also journalists in the daily newspapers writing about horse sports. The coverage of equestrian activities is better in Germany than in most countries, according to Hartwig. "We always need more. It is an advantage."