BHS Gold Membership: thinking of letting renewal lapse

[Fieldlife]

funny that this should come up as I let my BHS membership lapse this year (horse was off and for the most part, still is) so didn't see a reason to renew straight away. Will be looking into these as alternatives tbh, particularly as I don't really agree with the "BHS way of doing things"

Depends if you have another form of third party liability. IMO ALL horses owners must have third party liability somewhere / some way.

After the precedents set on horse owner liability even if someone destroys fences causing horses to get out over night, are still liable for any accidents caused, it is a non starter IMO to own a horse and not have third party liability. Not worth losing your house over if went wrong. But can get it through a range of places.

 

[hairycob]

In my area they are very active in protecting bridleways. They also run a couple of sponsored rides that Air Ambulance benefit from and have recently run trailer reversing courses for a very low cost.

 

[suestowford]

I was a member of BHS for many years. During that time I became disillusioned with them for many reasons. There seemed to be a lot of in-fighting at one time, as the old guard resisted the new, and I thought it took their focus off the important things for a while. They also completely ignored me when I wrote to them about something that mattered to me, so after all that I went elsewhere.
I did have 3rd party through Harry Hall, but I have now changed to WHW as although they are more expensive than HH, I felt happier about supporting a charity, especially with the rescue work they do. I think that will become more urgent as the COL bites, so the charities picking up the pieces will need all the support they can get.

 

[MiJodsR2BlinkinTite]

But geared to elite riders it’s just not .

^^^^

To me, yes it is. This is my perception, the BHS seems to be all about exams, and a certain way of riding, not the way I ride or manage my horses. I don't compete. Affiliated or unaffiliated. It matters not. I don't compete, end of. Hate people looking at me doing anything publicly and for me a Pleasure Ride is about all I'm interested in doing, and hacking-out.

Also as a small DIY YO run from home I do not feel the BHS has anything to offer me in the way of support or advice either; they seem very much geared towards big professional yards with a certain type of horse & rider clientele. I am going to upset some people on here and use the word "snob-appeal".

We have plenty of Access issues where I am. The BHS ROW Officer was and continues to be as useless as a chocolate teapot in this regard.

I occasionally work at a BHS-affiliated training yard; that was/is the only reason I have continued with BHS Gold frankly.

The "events" that occur in my area are never near enough to be able to get to comfortably, they're all held miles away from us, nothing within less than an hour's distance away.

 

[Snowfilly]

The BHS is a bit of a joke. A lot of their information in the exam system is outdated, very ‘our way is the only way’ and when it is sound, is often poorly taught by instructors who are only qualified to deal with decent horses. It’s also impossible to access at all if you live in some areas of the country.

Their access work is fragmented and varies depending on where you are in the country.

And one of our local committee members continues to sell lame / crazy / broken ponies to parents who don’t know a lot. The local BHS riding school uses lame ponies in their hacks fairly frequently, and despite repeated complaints, nothing has happened.

 

[lynz88]

Depends if you have another form of third party liability. IMO ALL horses owners must have third party liability somewhere / some way.

After the precedents set on horse owner liability even if someone destroys fences causing horses to get out over night, are still liable for any accidents caused, it is a non starter IMO to own a horse and not have third party liability. Not worth losing your house over if went wrong. But can get it through a range of places.

That's actually a good point. What's now stuck out in my mind was that when BHS contacted me initially about renewing, I had mentioned the above and they didn't even bother to make the point you've raised. I am covered now and will be looking at other options for the future though.

 

[teapot]

The BHS is a bit of a joke. A lot of their information in the exam system is outdated, very ‘our way is the only way’ and when it is sound, is often poorly taught by instructors who are only qualified to deal with decent horses. It’s also impossible to access at all if you live in some areas of the country.

Their access work is fragmented and varies depending on where you are in the country.

And one of our local committee members continues to sell lame / crazy / broken ponies to parents who don’t know a lot. The local BHS riding school uses lame ponies in their hacks fairly frequently, and despite repeated complaints, nothing has happened.

Sorry, but show me someone who's not been through the new system without showing me someone hasn't been through the new system... The new exam content is unrecognisable to the old 'this is the BHS way' that was around in the 90s, especially so at the higher levels (and yes I have taken taken some of the I/Stage 5 exams so speak from first hand experience of all five stages). They have done a LOT to improve the content and feel of the exams whether you're a groom, coach, rider or all three, and it shows. Even the Stage 1 is now geared to the reality of what a 17 year old junior member of yard staff would be responsible for.

I agree that your second and third points can and do happen, but a lot of that comes down to individuals rather than the BHS as a whole entity.

 

[Orangehorse]

The Access county officers are volunteers, so it depends on who has offered to do the work.

If more riders were members then they would have more money to spend on more staff.

I agree that the organisation is not perfect and there have been some rows and upheavals, but until there is another nationwide organisation that can represent riders and horse owners then I am sticking to the BHS.

 

[onemoretime]

I seem to remember someone mentioning the Veteran Horse Society does third party insurance.

I feel the same. I meant to cancel when there was all the conflict before, which Janet George was involved in. I lost all respect for them over that .

They were bullying staff and sacking them and then being taken to the tribunal and having to pay out thousands in compensation. I added 3rd party onto my horses insurance it was only £13 more.

 

[onemoretime]

I cancelled mine a few years ago partly because being on the coaches’ register with them was a complete rip off and partly because BHS Ireland is the biggest clique imaginable and they do F all for anyone in Ireland who doesn’t live in Co Antrim or Co Down.

Being on the register cost me hundreds every year in renewals and CPD for which anyone not in one of two areas favoured by them has to travel 2or 3 hours each way, lose money on earnings and potentially pay someone else for yard cover etc, and much of the training wasn’t worth it anyway. I can get instructor cover for a couple of hundred quid elsewhere and do any training locally or online. I get my normal public liability for the horses from HH these days.

We have no bridleways in Ireland, very limited off road riding, and they do practically nothing to promote the expansion of existing riding routes or provision of new ones. We’ve lost four out of five off road routes local to me in the past 20 years and they’ve done nothing to stop it.

They didn’t respond when I contacted them about the appalling welfare issues at a local horse market (which thankfully no longer takes place). Not a word despite complaints from a lot of people

I also despaired at the training and exams system- if you think exams are expensive in GB, well they charge even more for Ireland because apparently all assessors have to be brought over and accommodated (although they could use ones based here). It was cheaper to travel to England and pay flights and accommodation than do St4 in Ireland

I remember paying a lot of money to go on a St4 training course only to find that the BHS had decided there weren’t enough Is in Ireland and they had gathered up a group of IIs who were set loose on us for 3 days, and they were the ones that got the training from the Fellows we thought we're meant to be training us. Some of them were dire, but it was no surprise that they all sailed through the exam and the BHS got their numbers up

I commented on a thread on here years ago about how disillusioned I was with BHS Ireland and got a message from Stoneleigh asking if I would be willing to chat about it with one of the FBHSs - who was a bezzie mate of the ones running things over here, so I declined.

One of the final straws for me was the purchase of the horse boxes for their road trips. That’s charity money not well spent.

I typed all that in the middle of the night and then decided not to post it, but actually, I think it's all relevant so here goes.

Agree with every word, especially about the waste of money on the horseboxes. Do you remember all the argy bargy at their AGM a few years ago where a lady was assaulted by someone. Not to mention all the money paid out at tribunals for wrongful dismissals at Head Office, that was enough for me, I left.

 

[PeterNatt]

I am a BHS access and Road Safety Volunteer and I can assure you that we do a lot of work to improve the network of off-road riding and improve safety on the roads. The BHS needs to increase its membership so as to be able to demonstrate the number of Horse Riders and Carriage Drivers when negotiating with central and local governments.

 

[Celtic Fringe]

I cancelled my subscription a few years ago when I joined WHW and also left my horse to them in my will. The BHS no longer catered for my situation - TREC moved away from the BHS a long time ago and I'm not intending to sit any more exams.
WHW provide third party cover for both me and my son and I'm also more interested in their work than the BHS now. Our volunteer bridleway officers are quite pro-active and I can still contact them and would be happy to contribute specific funds for access if this was possible.

 

[Rowreach]

I am a BHS access and Road Safety Volunteer and I can assure you that we do a lot of work to improve the network of off-road riding and improve safety on the roads. The BHS needs to increase its membership so as to be able to demonstrate the number of Horse Riders and Carriage Drivers when negotiating with central and local governments.

Not in Ireland/NI they don't.

 

[Rowreach]

Going back to my post on page 1, I mentioned that access to 4 out of 5 of our local off road riding routes (Forest Services) had been lost over the past 20 years, with no intervention from the BHS, but it's worse than that because despite me having pointed it out to them several times in recent years, they are still listing them on the website as being current.

 

[PeterNatt]

Rwreach. Can you kindly send me more details of where these paths are and who you alerted at the BHS. You can send to my E-mail addres at peter.natt@btinternet.com Many thanks.

 

[PeterNatt]

Not in Ireland/NI they don't.

I appreciate that there are no Bridleways in Northern ireland but there is still Road Safety that needs to be addressed.