Determining the characteristics that equestarian sports facilities should have as a commercial recreation business

Efficient and healthy use of leisure time in equestrian sports activities is very important for the trust and satisfaction of individuals participating in equestrian activities. In this context, good planning and regulation is essential in order to ensure a healthy safety in the equestrian sports club facilities as a commercial recreation business and to make use of leisure activities without any problems. As a successful and exemplary commercial recreation business, equestrian sports club facilities must meet certain standards for service continuity and quality. For this reason, the aim of the research is focused on to provide the features that the equestrian sports club facilities should have as a commercial recreation business. In line with the purpose of the research, fifteen equestrian sports club facilities, registered under the Turkish Equestrian Federation as a federated commercial recreation businesses which were established in 1923 and became autonomous in 2006 were examined by observation technique and semi-structured interviews were conducted with equestrian sports club presidents, facility managers, facility employees, trainers, riders, veterinarians, physicians, farriers, grooms, horse owners, customers and field experts. As a commercial recreation business, these features, which are determined by prioritizing horse welfare, rider and visitor health and safety in order to establish certain standards in equestrian sports club facilities and to guide the newly established equestrian sports club facilities, will contribute to the standardization process and will pave the way for the formation of quality equestrian sports facilities.