BE Membership - new Pricing structure needed!!

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LincsEquestrian

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5 January 2008
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www.lincsequestrian.co.uk
I have been a BE member for a few years and I compete with my one horse at the lower levels. I do on average about 9 events a year as I only have one horse I dont want to over do it. Last year I did less as the ground was too hard even if the courses were prepared my trianing rides were not. I was about to renew my membership and my horses, which have both expired and am really struggling to justify the cost £205, when I compare it with the other diciplines. The cost of my BE membership adds over £25 to each competition I enter, this along with the cost of diesel and the fact that I wont win anything (well at least theres not much chance and certainly not any money) just makes eventing too expensive. However the more professional riders who compete each week on several horses pay the same amount as me. This seems quite unfair. In addition to this I could join British Showjumping or British Dressage where I could compete each week locally and all year long (not just 8 months) and stand a better chance of winning something for less money. I wonder if it isn't time that the pricing structure was looked into to accomodate the one horse amatuer rider. Does anyone else feel the same as me or am I just whingeing??
 
I agree that it is prohibitive. Wish they would do something for the one horse owner/rider at a grassroots level. It's also worse up north with the potential number of events that you have within a two hour drive for your membership.

It is certainly not fair. Think I'm going to stick to day tickets and unaff ODEs
 
it is your choice at the end of the day. BUT there are many unaffiliated ode s available to do , many run over be courses at half the price with no start fee. rc do a good choice as do pc (which run open sections so you dont need to be a pc member). that £205 membership could get you up to 5 or 6 runs unaffiliated/pc. but at the end of the day it really is your own choice. the standard at unaffiliated 90/100 is good. have a good season whatever you decide!
 
I think what you are saying is totally right & many people would agree with you.....myself included.
I think something called a grassroots membership which was half price & only allowed you to enter 8 events over a year would have people rushing to register. That would be perfect for me.
They could even bring in clauses such as to be entitled to it you have to have less than 10 foundation points.
It's a real shame that BE really don't seem to able to be more accommodating with regards to membership types :(
 
I take your point http ofcourseyoucan and I am looking at the unaffiliated comps near here but I have been to some very scary courses in the past and had to jump things that wouldn't be in a BE novice let alone a 90cm. I do it just for fun but want it to be safe! There are a couple of good ones near here though.
 
ofcourseyoucan said:
it is your choice at the end of the day. BUT there are many unaffiliated ode s available to do , many run over be courses at half the price with no start fee. rc do a good choice as do pc (which run open sections so you dont need to be a pc member). that £205 membership could get you up to 5 or 6 runs unaffiliated/pc. but at the end of the day it really is your own choice. the standard at unaffiliated 90/100 is good. have a good season whatever you decide!
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In Central Scotland I can think of only one such event. I'm afraid BE hold us to ransom up here as there are basically very few Unaff and those that exist are pretty low quality.

Why should a one horse grass roots rider pay the same as Mary King and Oli Townend when they also benefit from loads of 'team' training that we do not?
 
Try living in West Wales where it is a competitors nightmare because there is a dearth of everything. My nearest BE is 80 miles away, my nearest indoor BS is 80 miles away.
Unaff. is just pants because it is the same old thing and if I want decent instruction I have to cross the border into England again 80 miles away.
I am a BE member (why?) but I jacked in BS and BD years ago.
 
I totally agree, and living in Cornwall, I am also miles and miles away from events.

I know it is ultimately making it more complicated with regards to the pricing structure, but I am surprised that there is not a reduced rider fee for those that compete one horse.

Tbh this year I have decided that I am just not qetting value for money.
 
I am afraid at the end of the day it is your choice if you do it or not the actual cost to BE of you being a member is exactly the same as OT .BE obviously makes more out of the top riders in horse registration fees and the entry levy for each horse at events.The actual membership fee barely covers the admin and insurances involved.I personally think it would be fairer to do away with season tickets for horses and increase entry fees to cover this,however in the OPs case hoping to do 8 events I think in total they will spend more.It never has been an easily accessible sport however it is cheaper today than its ever been in relation to other cost.
Try being a one horse owner like myself its even more unfair.
If I can pick the OP up on one thing in an answer they said that they valued the safety that an affiliated event brings well that comes at a cost!!
 
BE is just prohibitively expensive to many amateurs but membership continues to flourish because most people just accept it and pay anyway.

Last year I chose not to renew- I've done 9 seasons with BE, mostly just running 1 horse lightly as an amateur, though not at grass roots, and I was late rejoining so they wanted to charge me an extra £20...... At that point I had a shirty conversation with them and decided I would not join again until there's more in it for me.

I've been very happy with BSJA in the meantime where it's affordable, there are plenty of shows nearby and I win my entry fees back every show- something I never acheived eventing, despite a few top 3 placings!
 
This year, we've decided that BE is just not the right thing for us to do- for the time being anyway. Instead I'll be doing some PC and UA events. We're affiliated to BD and I'll definitely renew my membership when it is due in July. If all goes to plan with the PC events then I may considering joining BE again in July for a half season. The U18 programmes are the only thing that really draw me to BE, if it wasn't for those I would be affiliating to BSJA and BD without a second thought!
 
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I totally agree. It should also depend where you are located too. I only compete one horse and looking back over the past 2 years, would have been better off competing on tickets as I did so few events. I started on tickets last year but then had to join BE as I wanted to do a CIC*. So I'm now limited as to what level I do as I literally cant afford to do 1*'s. I'm also based in NE Scotland where we have very few events (very far apart which I cant afford to go to!), I think I usually do about 5 BE events a year usually. Our season up here is also shorter than England and we dont get any of the winter things further down south get (like those indoor eventer trial things) and seriously lack any BE training up here. Totally unfair we have to pay the same.

I am leaning more towards BSJA nowadays, there's more shows around and its so much easier to win money back!
 
The first year that I did BE I joined up fully. I work shifts, so only get about one weekend off a month, and that combined with the cancellation of a fair few events due to wet ground that year meant that I only got in four events anyway! The following year I just entered on tickets to save money.. I haven't evented for a couple of years, and don't know if I will this year, but the plan would be BE tickets and unaffiliated.. I do like the standard of the ground, courses and backup if anything should go wrong (horse ambulance etc) at BE events.

I really liked the idea someone had of having a limited membership that entitles you to one event a month or something.
 
I will be sticking to unaffiliated eventing from now on until my horse is ready to go Novice- I am lucky that there are dozens of unaffiliated events around here over Intro/PN so no need to join BE at that level.

I will be re-registering with BD though as the membership is so much cheaper and I have done reasonably well this year with covering my entry fees with winnings.
 
LincsEquestrian said:
I was thinking that a tiered membership would be fairer, perhaps £80 for 1 horse £110 for up to 3 and then £150 unlimited horses.
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How would that be fairer! It would mean people with more horses subsidising your membership.
As I stated before the admin and insurance aspects of membership are the same if you have one or twenty horses.
I am talking as a one horse owner who does not ride so I pay the same as you for less benefits,but if you want to compete thats what it costs.
 
popsdosh said:
How would that be fairer! It would mean people with more horses subsidising your membership.
As I stated before the admin and insurance aspects of membership are the same if you have one or twenty horses.
I am talking as a one horse owner who does not ride so I pay the same as you for less benefits,but if you want to compete thats what it costs.
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And maybe they should be subsidising the grassroots admin/insurance costs.

The same way that my entry fees and horse and rider registration fees subsidise training and travel for top level performers and the big name events.
 
millitiger said:
And maybe they should be subsidising the grassroots admin/insurance costs.

The same way that my entry fees and horse and rider registration fees subsidise training and travel for top level performers and the big name events.
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^^^^ This ^^^^, as grassroots riders appear to be the cash cow, maybe some benefits should be reciprocated. I think that there should be a reduced membership option for people who only compete one horse. You register with one rider and one horse and their names are linked. If you then want to go on and event another or someone else wants to event yours, you either upgrade or day ticket?
 
LincsEquestrian said:
Yes but the likes of ollie doing 14 events a month get much more value for their membership so ilth likes of me is subsidising them.
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What about all Ollies owners who pay full membership as well and dont even ride the horse.
It cost a set amount to become a BE member which covers as stated before,This is why horses season tickets are on top that, then that is number related.
We all find it hard but I promise you 20yrs ago in relation it was a lot more expensive!
 
LincsEquestrian said:
I don't agree that it would cost the same to insurance me doing 10 grassroots comps as it would a professional rider doing 80 events a year!
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It does as the insurance is per rider you are just as likely to need 3rd party cover as the next rider.
How many more staff do you want at Stoneleigh sorting out all these membership bands.
If a one horse rider gets a cheaper deal then why not the 2 horse rider? You need to realise that membership is just that irrespective of how many horses you have.You are paying to be a member of BE which then allows you to compete nobody is making you!
 
Cheaper than it used to be? When my mother was eventing she paid next to nothing for membership, £6 entry & £60 first prize! Don't see those kind of results these days. But, as stated previously, it is our choice, more fool us!
 
I have to say that my membership being the same as Ollie Townends does not bother me. It is my lifestyle choice to have one horse.
Also I have to disagree about our membership funding the elite as this is not true. They get their funding from UK sport which is lottery funded. I think I have looked at the budgets and in the past BE has put something like £100k into the teams from ponies right up to seniors which is a drop in the ocean.
Also do not forget that those with advanced and intermediate horses pay more for horse registration so in effect they are paying more into the sport as it only takes 20 points for them to become grade 2 which is not a great deal if the pro is any good.
 
Ok but compare it to bs where you can join for £100 for 6 months, jump each week and win prize money. I appreciate it's our choice to join but if a lot of people are questioning the value then BE should take this into consideration. That's all I'm saying, I just wanted to know if there were others that feel the same. Thanks for all you comments though.
 
I'm not sure B.E can be compared to BS or BD, as you need to factor in the different running costs involved.

BS will always be at an advantage, being more spectator friendly & cheaper to run as well as easier to find venues & weather/going can often be easily sorted.

I agree that membership is expensive (for me) but I just accept that I have chosen a expensive discipline. As much as I would appreciate different tiered memberships, I can't see it ever happening.

x
 
........ And BS have introduced club shows which are for the true amatuer and you don't have to join bd to do prelim tests so if they can do something to attrack the amatuer rider, then why don't BE. It shouldn't have to be an expensive sport. Someone someheres' must be making a lot of money.
 
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