From banking to horsebackriding …and back?

The 2008 financial crises had devastating but also unusual ripple effects on people’s live. On mine, working for a large American bank in Algeria, it translated into a ridiculous small bonus shooting my yearly hourly rate to the abyssal level below that of a cleaning lady. On a whim, I decided to pursue my passion for horses and train to be a professional riding instructor. Despite having a horsemen culture and heritage Algeria no longer had appropriate riding facilities, after the years of terrorism it had gone through. So I thought of creating my own private riding facility. Motivated by that ideal I left for France to train with the best riding instructors.

The Algerian government through the Ministry of Youth and Sports was launching an ambitious national project: A national riding academy for our young elite. Directly appointed by the minister on the basis of the recommendation of the French Equitation Federation pursuant to the honors received on a program I conducted in France with young autistic adults, I headed the project.

The project was designed as an elite sport center where the promising youth would be trained to rise to an international equestrian career. You had categories, in terms of sorts of events and also in terms of age groups. The project was to a have a National riding academy in Blida (50km from the capital) and 4 regional facilities to be set-up, one was already functional: Mascara (400km south of Algiers). The decree describing the facilities and the program was signed by the President and the budget allocated.

They called me in in February and expected the school to be up and running the following September.

As I embarked on the project I discovered a number of major issues: first the facilities allocated to the project (Blida and Mascara) were already being used by recreational riders (http://www.chmblida.com). The fact that the national riding academy would be there was an expropriation of their territory they felt. The club from Blida started a campaign in the press badmouthing me and the project and calling the citizens of the town to protest against the project.

Algeria, with its colonial heritage is very bureaucratic and I found out that the project was designed was more an embryo of an idea, than an actual project. The regulation creating the school was outdated. It did not take into account any of the progresses made in the field since the seventies and most importantly did not take into account neither half of the population i.e. women nor the horsemen heritage of the country. By studying other sports regulation as this was the first I realized that they had copied the regulation of a football academy.

Therefore, the budget allocated was about the same in terms of budget lines but not in terms of amount. The department of sports in the Ministry, did not realize, that I could not just buy any horses and the horse had to be trained in the specific discipline that they needed them to compete in. They needed to be cared for, fed and most importantly ridden and worked everyday.

Needless to say that my nomination as a young woman, coming from the private sector and recommended by foreigners was not welcomed. I immediately had to tackle a number of issues from completely redefining the project outline in terms of public, objectives and even sites. I audited the field of the equine sector and realized that the project could be the backbone of an important structural change in the field and could create a number of jobs both upstream and downstream.

I redesigned the facilities allocating the one in Blida to classical riding (dressage, eventing, jumping) and the facility in Mascara to Fantasia a traditional exhibition of horsemanship passed on from one generation to another and that I thought of professionalizing. I fought for an increase of budget and had to defend it at a parliamentary hearing and was granted $2 millions to build the first post-independence covered arena and residential dorms on both sites designed to lodge girls and boys. Statutory texts and policies had to be redrafted establishing a new syllabus for activities that were not regimented. Negotiations were conducted at the highest levels in collaboration with different ministries (agriculture, vocational training, solidarity) since I also ensured that all facilities where fully accessible for disabled users, again a first in a country where handicapped are confined in specialized centers.

I then tackled the breeds of horses, equestrian endurance and fantasia could be practiced on local horses, berbs, whereas for classical riding European breeds are more appropriate. The riders were very condescending and were not inclined to use local horses viewed as beginner horses. I had to tour Algeria, visit the rural areas, talk to the breeders and convince them of the beauty of that horse and the pride of this heritage. I established a breeding plan where over 80 families would be impacted since the school would directly buy horses from them.

I negotiated and signed a bilateral agreement with the French government where they would help us train all auxiliaries of the equine field: blacksmith, dentist, groom, trainers in equitherapy…

Unfortunately, all these changes were too groundbreaking in a field where people still viewed equitation as an aristocratic sport to be reserved to the elite. The nouveau riche of Algeria kept trying to influence the public local officials to downsize the project while increasing the subsidies to their associations which they managed in succeeding in.

In hindsight I realize I could have taken a faster approach which would have helped me launch the project, and I could have done at probably every single level of the project but I believe that the most effective ones, that I think of as hypotheses, would have been the following.

The value hypothesis in the project is that the Ministry had me implement was on the basis that the Algerian Equestrian Federation had over 10,000 riders. After reviewing the numbers we realized that these were the traditional/rural farmers who simply rode a horse and formal equestrian riding was done by about 200 amateurs in the country (only jumping).

First, before doing anything I think simply conducting a survey within the Algerian Equestrain Federation would have help identify and set the goals of the riding academy and really actually assess who that was for.

Second, it would have helped with making the riding community feel part of the project so instead of having to sit for hours at a time in useless meetings where I kept reassuring the Blida Club that we would not expropriate them out of the facilities. It did incite them to improve the facility and create an internet site as to digitally exist and evidence to the Minsitry they were actually active! Instead, I should have launched “live testing” of the project with 3 or 4 stable boys from the club itself who were already riding there and could have been a good base for the riding academy. And yes the facilities would have been outdated a little longer and the unusable horses would have been put to use. I should also have pushed to buy 6 instruction horses and started the project as is. Should I have done so, instead of allowing the construction of the covered arena, the people would have seen a project on the making and would have witnessed and probably adhered to my plan. I would have been to collect data and most probably shifted the priorities.

Third, I should have set-up a mini program 2 afternoons per week as an afterschool activity. A lot of families came to the Club of Blida and this opportunity should have been used to conduct a pilot program with first the families and eventually extended to a local school, with the existing poneys. Again, maybe the data gathered would have allowed me to set Blida as an afterschool riding academy since it is embedded in a city.

Lastly, in order to avoid the tensions with the club of Blida and the fact that we had what seemed conflicting interest, a pilot program with Mascara (400km away from the main tensions) could have been started there, where, again I should have used whatever resources were available no matter how deficient or incompetent they were to build a core team.

I am certain that any of these hypothesis would have made me shift the project if not redraft its objectives.

Instead the Ministry had me focus my attention on the framework of the project and on the road map and with no professionals in the equestrian field, I had to do it by myself, relying on a dormant administration. As a result, frustrated with the pace and lack of political willingness to let the project fully take off I ended-up resigning.

The project is “still in the making”.