Key figures and importance of the equine sector in France
What are the key figures for horse riding in France? How important is this sector in development? This is the question that many riders and professionals in the world of horse riding ask themselves. There are many aspects that can be taken into account in such an assessment. In this article, we address them.
Small businesses that create jobs
The equine sector in France presents a wide variety of companies due to the diversity of segments within the sector (racing, sports and leisure, work, meat production, etc.) and the diversity of professions within each segment. Two main types of companies coexist: companies directly linked to horses, which produce, promote or use them, and related companies which are service providers to the previous ones and to individuals.
In 2009, France had 53,300 companies, of which 64% were breeding structures and 15% were related companies. Among these related companies, there is La Sellerie Française which offers various accessories from horse riding to horse feed. For many of the latter, the horse is an opportunity to diversify their offer, which is not exclusively equine.
For farmers, horses are also an opportunity for diversification through pensions and services for owners. All of these structures generated an estimated turnover of 12.3 billion euros in 2008, of which 1.5 billion came from agricultural activities. Horse racing betting represented 9.5 billion (77%), of which a little over 7 billion was redistributed in the form of winnings to punters.
The structures in the "racing" segment generate a turnover that is generally higher than that of the other segments, while the breeding structures have a turnover that is on average lower than that of companies linked to the use of horses.
These averages nevertheless mask significant differences: the turnover of equestrian establishments varies, in reality, from €12,000 to €450,000 depending on the size of the establishment, while half of the farms generate none.
One in three companies is located in the Lower Normandy, Pays de la Loire and Rhône-Alpes regions. More specifically, livestock farming activities are particularly developed in the northwest, while the southeast is more of a region of use.
The horse, a player in regional planning
Horses are able to occupy very varied environments, including difficult environments that are not very productive or have been abandoned by agriculture and in particular ruminant breeding. They thus contribute to the maintenance of spaces and the preservation of landscapes, particularly in a context of decline in the numbers of other herbivores.
Indeed, while the herds of other herbivores have been declining for ten years, that of equines remained stable between 2000 and 2010. This allows the maintenance of animals in areas where livestock farming is disappearing. Thus, horses make use of approximately 5% of the areas still under grass, or 0.5 million hectares in the form of direct grazing.
Indirectly, horses enhance agricultural land producing fodder and cereals, which brings the total area enhanced by equines to two million hectares. Part of this area is maintained by equines owned by individuals, often on small plots. Depending on the region, 30 to 90% of equines belong to independent individuals and are managed directly by their owner.
The use of these areas, although competing with both agriculture and urbanization from a land point of view, is complementary to them from a spatial organization point of view.
Thus, equines in peri-urban areas use "transition" plots that are no longer agricultural and not yet urbanized. Beyond the occupation of space, the development of activities such as those related to equestrian tourism contributes to the dynamism of the territories, both through the development of paths and the creation of jobs.