How Many Equestrian Businesses Are There in Germany, Austria and Switzerland?

How Many Equestrian Businesses Are There in Germany, Austria and Switzerland?

The first systematic market analysis for the DACH region (as of 24 February 2026)

The equestrian world is big.

But how big exactly?

That question is surprisingly hard to answer. Depending on the source, the figures vary widely — often only club structures are counted, or only members of the German Equestrian Federation (FN), or only tourism providers.

While building our platform Ridetreat, we therefore set out to analyse the entire DACH region systematically.

The goal: a realistic, cleaned-up estimate of every riding and equestrian business that actually exists.

📊 Result: ~29,854 real equestrian businesses in the DACH region

After aggregating multiple data sources and cleaning the results (duplicates, false positives, non-equestrian entries), the picture looks like this:

Country + Cleaned estimate

🇩🇪 Germany ~27,020

🇦🇹 Austria ~1,776

🇨🇭 Switzerland ~1,058

DACH total ~29,854

Germany dominates by a wide margin. Bavaria alone (~4,319 businesses) has more equestrian businesses than Austria and Switzerland combined.

Digital maturity across the sector

Beyond the headline number, the analysis reveals a clear digital divide:

• 44% of businesses have a website
• 25% have a publicly findable email address
• 65% work exclusively with "send an enquiry" models
• Fewer than 1% offer direct online booking

Put plainly: the market comprises just under 30,000 businesses — but only a fraction of them use any digital booking infrastructure. Compared with other leisure and tourism sectors, the equestrian world is significantly under-digitalised.

What's on offer: an overview

Of the businesses analysed and confirmed:

• 74% offer riding lessons
• 38% offer professional training
• 36% offer boarding or livery
• 1,661 businesses have accommodation on site (relevant for tourism)

The range of services is broad. But structurally, it is fragmented.

Market potential

The DACH region is home to more than 100 million people, plus millions of tourist movements every year.

With just under 30,000 providers, this is not a niche market. It is a structurally grown economic sector with considerable room for modernisation.

Particularly notable:

• A high share of clubs in Germany (~50% of the businesses recorded)
• A more commercial structure in Switzerland (boarding/livery dominates)
• Tourism and camp offerings well above average in Austria and Switzerland

Why these figures matter

Until now, there has been no consolidated overview of:

• the actual number of equestrian businesses in the DACH region
• how digitally reachable they are
• what they offer
• how they handle bookings

That transparency is the foundation for:

• market analysis
• investment decisions
• platform models
• tourism strategies
• modernising the sector

Conclusion

The equestrian world is big. It has simply never been brought together systematically.

With around 29,854 businesses actually in existence, the DACH market is considerably larger than commonly assumed — and at the same time deeply fragmented in digital terms.

That is exactly where Ridetreat comes in.

Less searching. More riding.