Regarding the insurance issue, as Wally pointed out, insurance has gone up all round, in all industries.
Just think for a minute regarding liability insurance. A riding school I used to attend, had a premier league (also played for England) football player attend for a few lessons with his daughter, (no I'm not bragging that I've been to a posh riding school, because it wasn't it just happened to be local to where they then lived). Imagine if he had fallen from the horse and injured himself, badly, maybe a broken leg? Such an injury could have ended his football career, just think of how high that compensation claim would have been
. When the owner of the school would only have paid maybe a couple of hundred pounds? Now scale that down to somebody normal, it could still cost a lot of money.
It's not really all the insurers fault that riding schools/trekking centres are closing. Parents are only prepared to pay so much for riding lessons, especially if little Emily and Johny are involved in lots of other activities, such as music, football, dance etc as is the want of a lot of families today.
As pointed out, most people I know are ordinary people who don't do other things, like go out boozing every weekend or buy designer clothes to pay for their horses. As my OH points out to people who don't really 'know', our horse probably costs less to keep each month than some of them spend on one weekend going out, and they go out every weekend.
I think the price of horses has risen a lot, and this seemed to happen overnight, especially when passports became 'legal'. So if prices are rising at the bottom end, the top end must be breath taking.
Again, I suppose this is where the elitist image comes in, spending £2-3k on a horse seems like a lot of money, (well it is a lot of money), yet some people would quite happily spend this on a holiday every year. It's all relative.
What doesn't help the case, as has been pointed out the current Labour government with their ban on hunting, making it seem like all horse owners are a bunch of red coat wearing, winging toffs with nothing better to do than chase foxes and say 'tally ho'! I also have to say however, that the hunting lobby didn't do much to cover themselves in glory either, (that is my own opinion and I'm not after a debate
).
Riding as a sport also appears to be very under represented by BME groups (Black Minority Ethnic), this again may fuel the image that it is a white middle class sport. Don't know just surmising.
I think gone are the days when people would have a horse, school it and be able to achieve great things with it. There does seem to be a fashion for certain types of horse to do different disciplines, such as dressage. This creates elitism within the sport itself, if you want to compete on a cob, a lot of people say oh well you wont get much past novice! Why?! Some cobs have lovely movement! Just snobbery as cobs were once the working horse, pulling carts etc, not riding horses.
An example at grass routes level, our local village show, held once a year, always had an in-hand coloured class, the judge of the in-hand class didn't like coloured horses so it was pulled from the schedule. I also heard that she said any coloureds entered wouldn't win as she doesn't like them!
That year, as the organiser and that judge have both shown to a high level with their own horses and now with their daughters, (one of whom, fair play, made it to HOYS, I'm not knocking that achievement), but that year the show was swamped with kids who were way above the standard, 'professional' show ponies etc and all the local kids who enjoy going on their shaggy ponies and sharing between brother and sister, didn't get a look in. It was really quite said.
So, yes there is an image of outside the horsey world, but most non-horsey people understand if you explain. I personally think it is more elitist within the sport itself.
Sorry rambled, but I think the question is more complex, than a just yes/no answer!
