Importance of having updated equine data and how research can help data collection

In the European Union, the horse industry has undergone significant changes since the middle of the 20th Century. It has changed from a primarily agricultural and industrial sector activity to one firmly rooted in sports, leisure and consumption. These evolutions generate the development of new kinds of activities and the growth of the whole horse industry. Consequently, new questions arise about the role of equines in economic dynamism, culture, social links, rural development… However, little is known about the horse industry. Few studies have been conducted and in most countries, statistical data on the horse sector is lacking or incomplete. This lack of equine data at an international level but also at national levels is a problem often encountered by researchers, institutions, professionals and policy makers, moreover in the current context of the preparation of the next CAP EU Agriculture Policy (2020-2024) such data is vital. That's why it is important that the different actors in the horse industry join their efforts to promote better production of statistics on equine activities. This could help researchers to develop international studies on this sector, institutions to highlight the growing importance of this sector and improve its recognition as a real agricultural actor, professionals to be more legitimately included in the agricultural world, and policy makers to create more effective policies. Through this, researchers can participate in the improvement of data collection in different ways: promoting it in their country, providing local data to international institutions but also creating new data collection processes and methodologies that could be used uniformly in every country. This presentation addresses these issues in order to give rise to further discussions amongst attendees.