The Equestrian Federation of Finland
Adress: Radiokatu 20, 00093 SLU, Finland
Phone: 09-2294 510
Telefax: 09-1496864
E-mail: ratsastus@ratsastus.fi
Internet: www.ratsastus.fi
Office hours: mon-fri 9 am - 4 pm.

Facts and Figures:
Equestrianism in Finland

More than 150.000 Finns have riding as their hobby (total population: 5.2 million). Fifty-eight percent  of the riders are adults and forty-two are under the age of 18. The number of adult riders has risen remarkably over the past years, while the number of riders under 18 has remained unchanged, a relative increase because the age group is five percent smaller than three years ago.

The total estimated number of horses in Finland is 71.000. Of these registered horses 15.500 are warm blood riding horses, 8.800 ponies, and 19.750 Finnish cold blood horses “ Finn Horses”, of which 4.400 are used for equestrian disciplines. This means that 28.700 horses are active in equestrian sports. The remaining horses are warm blood trotters. In 2007 there were 410 Finnish Warm Blood foals and 595 ponies born in Finland. The horse industry employs more than 10.000 people directly or indirectly.

The Equestrian Federation of Finland was founded in 1920 and has been a member and representative of the International Equestrian Federation, or Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), since 1923. The national federation focuses on developing equestrianism both as a hobby and a sport, promoting horse welfare and rider safety, providing activities for young people, and working to create safe traffic routes for riders and carriage drivers. Horse breeding and trotting horse sports are governed by an organisation called Suomen Hippos.

Riding clubs are members of the national federation. The clubs themselves have more than 42.125 registered members, 94 percent of which are female and 6 percent male. In addition, there are more than 5.051 registered occasional riders who have taken out a Green Card. There are 419 riding clubs in Finland, and last year the members took and passed 1.350 riding tests and 1.300 horsemanship tests.

A total of 193 riding schools and 44 leisure riding stables have applied for approval and been accepted by the Equestrian Federation of Finland. The approximate number of riding stables is 1,000, half of these provide riding school-type of services.
The Ypäjä Equine College is the leading school for training people to become professionals within the horse industry. There are training programs, for example, for riding instructors, stable managers, grooms, and farriers. The College represents the Equestrian Federation of Finland in the International Group for Equestrian Qualifications, and it also is a member of the Equestrian Educational Network.

Men and women compete on equal terms in all equestrian disciplines, with the exception of vaulting. The Olympic disciplines are dressage, eventing, show jumping, and paralympic riding; other competition disciplines are endurance, carriage driving, riding for the handicapped, Icelandic horse riding, vaulting, and western riding. Trekking is a non-competitive discipline. The Ypäjä Equine College is the main training centre for equestrian teams in Finland.

Year 2008 1.657 riders were licensed to compete at national level. Regional licences were held by 3.991 riders, and there were 7.644 registered active competition horses.
The Equestrian Federation of Finland publishes a 96-page, 4-colour magazine called Hippos eight times each year. It was founded in 1947, and today 40.000 copies of each issue are sent to club members and subscribers. The web page of the Federation attracts 150.000 visitors each month. Finland is divided into eight equestrian regional organizations, who publish their own local bulletins and web pages.

For more information about equestrianism in Finland please e-mail: ratsastus@ratsastus.fi

The web page of the Finnish Federation: www.ratsastus.fi is in Finnish only, unfortunately.