Equine Business Consultancy

25/05/2026

Do you understand the carrying capacity of horses?

How much weight can a horse carry? what considerations are there in determining what a horse can carry. proprietor of the Rein and Shine Equestrian Centre Jo...

16/04/2026

Equestrian Centres are small businesses in a shrinking sector that sees the closure of more riding schools and livery yards every year. Awareness campaigns such as these help those centres who do provide great experiences reach a wider audience

31/03/2026

Promotional open days are are a great way to get new customers through the door. But how can you ensure you are not wasting your time with day trippers?

31/03/2026

Are you aware of the facts?

✨In one week ✨several updates to the Employment Rights Act come into force. Yards must prepare for these changes and update their working practices and policies in line with the new rules. There are changes to:

⚖ Statutory Sick Pay
⚖ Paternity leave
⚖ Maternity, adoption, shared parental, neonatal care, and bereavement leave
⚖ Reporting sexual harassment

EEA members can download our free guide to the changes and how to prepare: equestrianemployers.org.uk/good-employment/ERA

31/03/2026

26/03/2026

Adding value in this way creates rapid development and makes every £ spent worth far more

17/03/2026

from Farm equestrian Centre : "There are only about 1000 left in UK, 500 have ceased since Covid.
Why does no one want to run a proper legally licenced legitimate riding school?"

We need loads more riding schools! What is to be done!?

There are only about 1000 left in UK, 500 have ceased since Covid.
Why does no one want to run a proper legally licenced legitimate riding school?
The demand for it is out there!
Is it the difficulty recruiting and costs of staffing, the long hours, the overheads, the red tape, the increasingly expensive horses, or is it the sometimes over-demanding clientele (most of ours are great). Is it that there are some people out there intent on slagging off riding schools and the riding of horses in general driving kids back to their computer games. The H&S, the compensation culture, the high insurance? The list is endless.

I think riding schools never get enough recognition, a pat on the back or a helping hand as other sports often do. We have been failed by our governing bodies. We need horses to remain accessible to everyone (as they are in Europe in partially funded and supported centres). Even though UK government happily funds £36million for Winter Olympians to enjoy winter sports that most of us can never access!

No riding schools - no facilities to hire, no youngsters learning at the grassroots level, no children and teens learning pony care, moving in to owning, in to the Clubs, in to the competitions, in to qualifications, in to jobs, in to Team GB, in to running new businesses. The whole system starts to falter and break down. Soon horses will then have no homes, the sanctuaries will be too full, prices will fall to rock bottom, the wrong people buy the wrong horses and may fail to correctly care for them.

As another local School decides to not renew their licence, we are losing another well managed, regulated, inspected and licenced* option for safe structured learning in an environment where you can entrust your children and teens to be looked after (* as required by law) . The home ed provision, the SEN provision, the structured progressive learning, the choice of many different ponies to love, ,ride and learn from, the friendship, the outdoorsy fresh air and physicality of it all. Going, going, gone!
What can we do?
Oh well, back to the admin that is not about to do itself.

07/03/2026

Ready for an interesting and inspiring day at National Equine Forum!

So happy to be here with Helen Stock to support our YardWise - Business & Networking Events for Yard Professionals co-founding colleague Cheryl Johns who is delivering a session this afternoon. 🤩

An important day in the calendar for our industry.

07/03/2026

Are you helping to grow the sector by creating and training coaches?

01/03/2026

Since January we have been supporting the British Horse Society with Start-up & Growth sessions for equine business owners.

1 - Defining the vision - what you want your centre to look like, now and in the future (Jan)

2- Turning the dream into a plan - creating and developing your business plan. Finance, pricing, costs, and profit (Feb)

3 - Planning th Customer Journey - attracting and retaining the right clients (2nd March!)

4 - Mastering marketing - a marketing plan that reflects the core of your values (April)

5 - Recruiting and training the right team (May)

6 Operational set up and timelines (June)

British Horse Society