Emily King crowdfunding?

I know absolutely nothing about how 'real' syndicates work but I would have thought that there were legal implications regarding the percentage of ownership, rights of the syndicate member in relation to access, decisions about veterinary care, selling the horse on...is this correct?
Some of the people who have donated and who continue to donate definitely consider themselves to be members of a syndicate but this is clearly not the case. The two major investors will have a say in things, no doubt. The other major investor is EK herself who has effectively used personal donations to help fund the purchase of this horse.

On a slightly different note, why are people so ready to believe her when she says that this horse will go to the Olympics and beyond? Don't they know that it's impossible to say this? - anything could happen.
 
I looked an BE, and it seems that a syndicate does not necessarily infer ownership...

What is a syndicate? A syndicate is when two or more like-minded people come together to share the ‘ownership’ of a horse. A Syndicate Membership is for three or more people. A Joint Membership is for two people.


Why become involved? Forming and/or joining a syndicate is a great way of enjoying the fun, thrill, camaraderie, and excitement of horse ownership and being able to share the cost. Eventing is a very successful sport on the international stage and the UK is the global heart of the sport with many of the world’s top riders choosing to base themselves here because of the quality of the competitions and the convenience of having so many events within easy reach.

What are the options?
There are several options/permutations, some of which are listed below, and it is down to personal preference.

1. Purchasing a horse with others and sharing all the costs
2. ‘Owning’ a horse where there is no capital outlay but all the running costs for the horse are picked up by the members of the joint ownership/syndicate
3. Partnering with the owner of the horse (which could be the rider) and sharing the running costs
4. Buying a ‘share’ in a horse which requires a capital investment and then agreed running costs
5. Sharing the cost of running a horse owned by a third party (which does not necessarily require a capital outlay)

In all instances the horse should run in the name of the syndicate or the names of the joint owners





What are syndicate/joint ownership benefits?

The benefits of being a member of a syndicate or a joint owner can vary and are largely dependent on the rider engaging fully with the syndicate members. The benefits should include regular communication from the rider, passes to events, yard visits, behind the scenes experience, on top of the fun and the opportunity to be involved in the sport.

Owners of horses need to be members of British Eventing and information on Joint Ownership and Syndicates can be found on the BE website www.britisheventing.com or by calling the BE Membership department on 02476 698857.

The Syndicate membership includes three syndicate membership, additional memberships can be purchased at a discounted rate.

The member benefits of Syndicate membership with British Eventing include:

 Membership card gaining free access to events up to and including CCI*  Bi-monthly British Eventing Life magazine  Members handbook  Own a registered horse  £20m Third Party Liability Cover  Personal accident cover  Monthly e-newsletter  Hundreds of discounts from the member advantages website  Online community access  Discounts on Training and Education
 
The BE syndicate stuff is very interesting.
I can see that there are plenty of potential advantages in getting involved with what is being described on the BE website, but my interpretation is that this is for a relatively small number of people (ie, compared to over 600) and, in the case of BE, they need to be members of BE.


The EK thing looks different as it's obviously a private arrangement involving hundreds of people (and she originally wanted around 2000). One of the main issues is that the original page does not make the terms of the thing clear enough, hence some people think they've got an actual share in a horse when there can't possibly be any legal basis to this (but I'm happy to be corrected if I'm wrong here). At what point did the donations towards the horse become donations to its upkeep? Presumably after the two investors coughed up - but do people know what they are giving money towards? Very dodgy.

I can't think that BE would be thrilled about dozens and dozens of people turning up at an event to visit a horse 'behind the scenes' and I'm not sure other competitors would be too keen on it either. Wouldn't surprise me if they end up running a draw so that 5 people out of the 600+ win a chance for a course walk. Not a bad idea but the problem is they didn't make that clear from the outset.

It gets more bonkers by the minute.
 
The Horse and Hound story on this was pathetic - does H&H have any backbone any more? Actually silly question, it hasn't had ay backbone for years.....
 
SpringArising said:
She's just young and ignorant as to what a syndicate actually is!
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If it was another 22 year old, I might think this, but EK will absolutely know what a syndicate is and how they work. I'm pretty sure some of MK's horses are or have been owned by syndicates.

Being very cynical, I think she thinks she can profit from this horse hugely when selling it in maybe five years time and doesn't want to have to pass that on to investors.
 
Tiddlypom said:
Part quote from Miss King's FB page, posted yesterday.

'Please can all donators send an email to: ***********@outlook.com with your name, email address and home address. [...]
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I wonder if she'll be complying with the new legislation regarding the handling and storage of sensitive data? Doubt it.
 
Wishfilly said:
If it was another 22 year old, I might think this, but EK will absolutely know what a syndicate is and how they work. I'm pretty sure some of MK's horses are or have been owned by syndicates.

Being very cynical, I think she thinks she can profit from this horse hugely when selling it in maybe five years time and doesn't want to have to pass that on to investors.
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Agreed.
I can't think that there's a single professional rider that won't be aware of the nature of a syndicate. I cannot believe that it won't have been discussed among family and associates either.
The more I think about it all, the more dodgy it seems.

Meanwhile, people continue to donate via the JG page, including someone who says she can't donate much because she has to pay for things for her own horse's welfare Including a saddle). So we've got a situation here where people who are struggling financially to provide for their own horses are subsidising the upkeep of a professional eventer's 40k horse. They're not even helping to buy the horse, they are actually funding its upkeep when their own horses need stuff. And they're funding the upkeep of a horse when its rider/part owner gets free food, free tack, etc etc.

is it just me or does this not seem utterly barmy?
 
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wonder how many people knew she was moving from devon to cheshire......i would be really annoyed if i lived in devon and was hoping to visit the yard,,also she has said she will be doing the northern circuit!!!! so much for southerners going for course walks etc... bit of a long way for a day out.

this all seems very wrong to me..... i find it odd that people who can barely afford their own horse pay money to this sort of thing, the world has gone mad
 
And people continue to give...I cannot understand why anyone would want to contribute to the upkeep of this horse.
There are people on FB saying how thrilled they are that they 'own' part of this horse.

The thing that's getting me is that there is still no update on the JG page. So people are still giving on the basis that the horse needs to be bought and 67% of the money has been raised - when the truth is that the horse has been bought and goodness knows where these donations are actually going now.
 
There are people who think that they are giving money to buy a horse when it's already been bought. This can't be right.

It's not enough that she posted an update to FB and Instagram. Donations are made through JG and that's where the updates should be. It's appalling that people who are struggling financially to provide for their own horses are donating to this ridiculous cause - mainly because they have absolutely no idea what they are giving their money too. It might be a quarter share in a soon-to-be-eaten bale of haylage.

Somebody has written that they feel it's a 'very good cause to support our Olympic team.' Hmmm.
 
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I reported it to, just out of disgust that she hasn't updated it. it should have been the first page she went to to announce it and update. At this stage it's a scam.
 
ycbm said:
And after two days with STILL no update to Just giving, probably actually a criminal offence. I've alerted BE and Justgiving.
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I reported it to just giving yesterday for this reason as it does violate their conditions and got a pretty poor reply back from them. Looks like they aren't going to do anything about it. They said if I had concerns about the page I need to contact the page owner directly :D
 
ShowJumperL95 said:
I reported it to just giving yesterday for this reason as it does violate their conditions and got a pretty poor reply back from them. Looks like they aren't going to do anything about it. They said if I had concerns about the page I need to contact the page owner directly :D
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I got the same message yesterday. Shame on them!
 
ycbm said:
I got the same message yesterday. Shame on them!
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That doesn't surprise me, they get a % of the donations so it is in their interests to allow it to run as long as it can, she really has not thought it through and will struggle to maintain proper contact with 600+ people many of whom will want to visit, meet and greet at events even if they gradually dwindle from apathy a few will probably try and get what was promised.
 
The girl on Facebook that wanted to raise £2000 to buy a second pony because she had to retire the first one, has bought it and she has also left her JustGiving page open and is still receiving donations, perhaps to fund its rugs and tack? Same issue but obviously less high profile
 
It is amazing how easy it is to get people to part with their money. The owner of the horse must be laughing all the way to the bank. £2k to fund a vet bill is one thing but £26k is quite another - surely EK has just received a £26k untaxed bonus or is it because everybody donating actually is a shareholder in the horse - don't shareholders have rights?
 
It makes me so damn angry. But not anymore angry than a certain blogger who tried to raise funds to buy a 20k lorry...
 
I’ve seen a quote that someone has made on Ek’s page which I found absolutely hilarious - apparently someone has said that she should re-name the horse “Dignity”..,..
 
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