I hope it's appropriate for me to be one of your speakers, since I've been involved in equestrian sport in many different capacities for over sixty years. Before I end I'll have a lot to say about the challenges that face us in the new millenium, but if you'll permit me, Id like to start with a brief historical overview and a look at what the priorities were a century ago.

For a lot of what equestrian sport is today, and a lot of the challenges and problems we now face, are a consequence of what we were a century ago, or half a century ago, and the ways in which both our sport and our society have evolved since then.