Depends if you have another form of third party liability. IMO ALL horses owners must have third party liability somewhere / some way.
^^^^
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.
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.
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.
I know this is dead, but please can you explain access to me in Northern Ireland?
In NI we have limited to no designated bridle paths. We can not legally ride anywhere other than our own land and public roads or a very very small number of forests and they are multi use so likely to meet cyclists, mountain bikes and dogs. They are also 9/10 not even suitable for horses by way of the ground being awful and parking rubbish. I can think of only two places near me that allow horses and one is notorious for the keeper being anti-horse and doesn’t follow up on reports of bad paths/dog attacks. The other is quite new and frankly unless you are riding a mountain goat is unrideable.
Don’t know what I am talking about here, but are horse riders not recognised as ‘vulnerable users’ by NI authorities? In which case, surely their needs should be incorporated into RoW whether it is forests or tracks or wider spaces / verges on roads?
That’s a terrible state of affairs. I thought that the Green Isle was horse mad.
That question is only relevant at the level of your individual benefit - fair enough - but if individuals want to retain equestrian representation with national and local authorities, the BHS remains the recognised, statutory consultee.
I would think this is about right, because when BHS disappears through lack of support, so does that representation - as before.
You have hit the nail on the head here. Our affiliated Bridlepath group does clearing of bridlepaths once a month, it is a hard slog to get local riders to help, although I know it is usually on a work day, but couldn't they get a half day off to help with their local bridlepath.
