In this special episode of the Animalweb podcast, Helen Stock is joined by Amanda Watson (Equestrian Index) and Cheryl Johns (LiveryList) to introduce YardWise, a brand-new event tailored specifically for livery yard and riding school professionals. The event, taking place on 19 November 2025 at Warwick Trident College, Leamington Spa, is designed to be practical, collaborative, and solution-focused, offering attendees a rare chance to access top industry experts in one place.
Helen, Amanda, and Cheryl share the story behind YardWise – a collaborative effort driven by a shared passion for supporting yard owners and addressing the real-world challenges they face. From welfare and insurance to biosecurity, legal guidance, employment, sustainability, and communication skills, YardWise will tackle the everyday issues that affect yard businesses, with expert-led roundtables and tailored support.
YardWise 2025 – Key Details
- Location: Warwick Trident College, Leamington Spa
- Date: 19 November 2025
- Price: £95 (includes lunch, refreshments, and all workshops)
- CPD: BHS Accredited Professionals receive 6 CPD points
- Tickets & Info: yardwise.co.uk
💡 Key Takeaways
- Not a conference – a workshop-based experience: No long lectures. Attendees will join small group roundtables with leading experts to discuss the issues that matter most to them.
- Bring your pain points: YardWise is designed to provide real solutions. Attendees are encouraged to arrive with 3–4 key problems they want to solve.
- Expert line-up includes:
- Dr David Marlin & Amanda Stoddart-West (Welfare & Welfare Stewarding)
- Rebecca Stojak (Equine Solicitor – Geldards)
- Nick de Brauwer & Helen Whitelig (Redwings)
- SEIB Insurance Team
- Lizzie Herron (Equestrian Leadership & Communication)
- Lucy Catan MBE (Code of Good Employment)
- Claire Shand & Sarah (Worming & Parasite Control)
- Catherine Chapman (Accountancy & VAT)
- White Griffin (Equestrian Environmental Sustainability)
- Gail Eggington (Biosecurity – Ag+)
- Jane Patching & Leanne Kelly (Health & Safety – IMG)
- Livery Live (Yard Tech Solutions)
- British Horse Society (Business Support)
- Inclusive and tailored: Relevant for all yard professionals – livery yards, riding schools, mixed yards – no matter your size or experience.
- Networking and community-building: A much-needed opportunity for professionals who often work in isolation to connect, learn, and build stronger businesses.
- Hospitality by Bedmax & Strawmax: Expect more than a sandwich – attendees will be well looked after!
Additional Info
- Facebook: YardWise Facebook Page
- LinkedIn: YardWise on LinkedIn
Transcription
Here is a transcription of the podcast. (Please note this is an automated transcription, so we apologise for any errors from the original podcast.)
Hello and welcome to another edition of the Animal web podcast. It’s me Helen here from Animalweb and today I’m joined by two very special guests, very good friends. We have Amanda Watson from A Equestrian Index and Cheryl Johns from LiveryList and between us we’re going to tell you all about YardWise which is a new event that is coming to the Equestrian industry and we’re really really excited about it. So I got these lovely ladies on a podcast so that we could talk about it. Hello ladies!
Hello. Hello Helen, how are you doing? Good, thank you. Good. I thought we would start by just explaining a little bit about who we are and then we can tell people about the event and how it happened or is going to happen. Amanda, would you kick us off by telling us a little bit about yourself and your Equestrian index, please? Of course I can. So starting with the one who’s longest in the tooth.
But that’s fine, that’s fine. So, hi, I’m Amanda Watson, founder and managing director of Watson’s directories, which holds a number of brands underneath it, but the Equestrian Index is the longest standing. We have the Equestrian Index, the yard owner’s directory, Equestrian Property for Sale, and now really exciting YardWise. So I’ve worked in the industry under many guises for…
This is how long in the tooth I am 35 ish Everything from being a working pupil on yards way back in the late eighties to where I am now and a number of things in between. So yeah, just, yeah, just delighted and so excited about this, this new thing. So that, that’s me. Thank you. Cheryl, you’ve been very quiet. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and Liverylist please? Yeah, sure.
Hello everyone, so I’m Cheryl Johns. I’m predominantly known for running a website called LiveryList, which I set up in 2011 as a LivreYard directory. I’ve had horses pretty much all of my life and I set it up initially through frustration of really ancient and age-old directories and the old school way of having to find things. I thought I could come up with a new concept, which apparently is a successful one. Off of the back of that, I…
was being asked for support and guidance and templates and things for yard owners that were advertising on the site. So I set up a separate section which was called the Yard Owner Hub and then that moved onto its own website during COVID. That offers lots of guidance and resources for liver yard owners, riding school owners, covers all sorts of practical and administrative even yard management. Off the back of that, I also run a Facebook group which has got about three and a half thousand
verified yard owners, yard managers on there. And it’s really apparent that there’s a huge gap in the industry for support. Obviously, there’s no licensing required, there’s no governing body, there’s no specific regulations that anybody needs to adhere to to open a yard. So it can be quite a fickle industry. And because of that, although you have people like the BHS and the ABRS and British Equestrian that provide some guidance and information, it tends not to be fully understanding of the industry. And having
been under pretty much like Amanda, all guys as myself. I’ve also been horse owner, coach, livery, yard owner, employed groom, freelance groom. So I also have the experience behind me as well to have a really good perspective of where everybody that’s involved in the industry is coming from. During COVID, I had the plan to set up an event very similar to Yardwise with Redwins who are obviously involved in this event.
But then COVID happened and literally the world nearly ended and that put paid to that because nobody was leaving their house. And so I got chatting to Amanda quite a while back. And then at the National Equine show this year, me and Amanda got chatting to Helen and then that’s how Yardwise was born, which is something that we all think is much needed in the industry. So yeah, we can fill you in and tell you what’s going on. Thank you. Yeah, well.
The most important thing to say is obviously Yardwise is happening on the 19th of November this year. It will be at Warwick Trent College in Leamington Spa. And whilst we’re talking, if you want to go Google it and find out a little bit about it, it’s at yardwise.co.uk, which we must remember to keep saying so that people go and have a look. But yeah, I mean, I remember obviously meeting with you ladies, we were chatting about things.
David and I were talking about starting to do some events for Animalweb because everything we do traditionally has always been online and the thing that’s always sort of brings David to life and the other experts we work with to life is when they get to speak to people in the industry, people working in the industry and people with horses and I feel like there’s a real appetite for these sorts of events now. People want to get out and about, want to go see people and learn things in person. So…
I know that when we heard, you know, we started mentioning to you, we’re thinking about doing an event and then new ladies looked at each other and then looked at us and said, well, we’re already thinking about it. Well, it was, was, it was really fortuitous, wasn’t it? Because I’d been at the, we started at the National Equine Show and obviously both of, both of you had come along to that. And there was, I was really, really keen. Obviously the index works hard to connect people with the people that they need to know in the industry. That’s, that’s what kind of my job is.
So on a very small scale, just testing the water to see whether or not, know, yard owners and the businesses and the product and service providers who can categorically help them in their business plights, know, in improving their business management to bring them together. And it’s absolutely perfect for it. You know, these are businesses that generally often work alone.
in isolation, can often feel like they’re lacking confidence and support. And in actual fact, there’s a really strong community, but it is about working together. And I think the lovely thing is that, well, I hope I’m saying it’s a lovely thing. The collaboration between us has been absolutely fantastic, because working together is always better. Building things and coming into a room and speaking is much better. And I think arguably,
more and more important in this day and age, given the rise in digital and the noise out there, actually coming along to an event, sitting in a room, looking in somebody’s eyes and shaking their hands when you’re actually discussing a topic that’s really difficult or challenging or whatever is increasingly important. So I think YardWise is a really exciting prospect for everybody involved.
Yeah, I think definitely because like you say, Amanda, it’s quite isolating. also, you might know the people that run yards, maybe not the same type of as in other yard owners will know other yard owners that don’t, but they don’t necessarily have the same type of yard or the same problems or they might not be in the same area. And so my Facebook group of yard owners, a lot of it is repetitively kind of a recycling of the same issues, but in a different format.
And it’s all very well going onto a Facebook group and asking people’s opinions and me sharing things through the hub like the resources, but there’s no sort of one box fix all when it comes to problems. like the hay and and straw shortage that they think that they think they’ll be over the winter. People keep asking me how to deal with it. I did a webinar for the BHS the other day and one of the questions was, how can people deal with it? And I said, the thing is it entirely depends.
on too many factors to have a one answer fits all because it depends what packages you offer, whether you include it, what your liveries are like and how they’re likely to take on any changes, what your costings are like. And it’s exactly why the kind of ethos that we’ve tried to do with Yardwise is giving people, yard owners, yard managers, the opportunity to come and speak to these people like you wouldn’t generally have the opportunity to do. if you go to something like the National Equine One Show or Your Horse Live,
Yes, you can sit in a small amphitheatre and listen to these people talk at you about something that they’ve chosen to talk about, but that perhaps doesn’t answer your problem or your version of that problem. And then it’s very unlikely that you can just go and, you know, grab these people and are, oh, do you mind if I actually ask you this? Because they’d have all these other people that want to ask them something as well. And so with Yardwise, I think the fact that people are going to have all of these.
with some of which are genuinely like world leading in their field experts in this one room that everybody can pick and choose who they speak to. We’re being very conscious that it’s not an event where you’re just going to be sat at and talked at like some of the other equine conferences. People keep asking me if we can do an online link or if we can stream it, but I keep explaining it’s not, it’s not that sort of thing where it’s just presentations that we can put online for everyone else to join in and watch. It’s going to be very much.
a personalized and tailored experience for a lot of the yard owners. And obviously they’re going to get to meet other yard owners in person as well, which is always nice because on my Facebook group, for example, there’s a lot of what I would say regulars on there, but actually they don’t know each other. They just know kind of their persona and their name on Facebook. So it’d be really nice to see all these yard owners get together and have a nice chat as well. Yeah, I think it’s a really good
thing that we’re bringing forward, I genuinely do. I I know that we have a high percentage of livery yard owners, managers, workers on the Animal Web membership, because they are so engaged and they are asking industry related questions. They’re asking their forward thinking. They’re often the ones with fantastic advice on how to deal with yard politics, situations, whatever it might be, welfare, whatever it might be. And
like you said there isn’t anything else for them you know a lot of the other industries have their own societies communities and yearly conferences and I don’t feel the yard owners or yard workers have that kind of support that they deserve when so many of us with horses rely on them I feel like they’re genuine unsung heroes a lot of the time because if you can’t make it because you’re sick or whatever they’re the ones that are
Helen Stock (11:48.908)
genuinely caretaking our animals and too often an incredibly high standard. Yeah, and, without, without these businesses and these yard owners and professionals, we don’t have an industry. It’s as straightforward as that. So they are absolutely the most important people and should, should be having this level of support and input.
definitely more often than they currently are. So, and it’s one of our biggest reasons for doing this, right? And it’s the format is, as you’ve already alluded to Cheryl, is entirely different. It’s not prescriptive. We’re not expecting you to come in and listen to things that we think you should hear. These are all workshops based around topics that have been highlighted to us as problem areas for these businesses.
So we’ve gone around and go, okay, well, you everyone’s really struggling with these things. So we have 12 specialists, specialist workshops in the room. Now I would say to people, and I know some people want to do all of them, because probably some people will want to listen to every single person. You’ll be able to have access to these people all day. But for the workshops, come along with three or four pain points, real pain points in your…
daily management, in your yearly management, in the things that you really struggle with. Come along and have in your mind that you’re gonna go away, come in with some questions and you’re going to leave with those three or four things ticked off with strategies and ideas to implement that you’re actually gonna go and be able to do an action so you see a difference in your business rather than coming away thinking, my God, that was inspirational and fantastic and work those great talks and then doing nothing.
The whole point is that actually we are genuinely here to help make life better for you. And we have such a brilliant gang of people coming along, such a great gang of people along, clearly ourselves included in that. Yeah, unfortunately, folks, you won’t be able to escape us. We will be there all day. they’re in a support, obviously in a supportive capacity. But go to yardwise.co.uk and look at the people who are going to be there.
As you’ve said, both of you have said, you won’t get the opportunity very often to sit down and pick their brains, genuinely pick their brains with your specific problems. So something you not to miss. I’m sure we’ll do it again, but you definitely need to be there this November. It’s going to be so exciting.
I think now is the perfect time for us to talk about some of our experts for those that haven’t seen the numerous social posts that have been going out as these dropping some incredibly important names in the industry. So should we between us sort of work our way through it? I will obviously mention himself, Dr. David Marlin, he will be there, but he is presenting one of the key
talks with Amanda Stoddart-West and they’re going to be talking about welfare, welfare stewarding and talking welfare on the yard because it’s such a difficult topic and it is something that I know David and Amanda get asked about a lot. It’s all very well campaigning, waving your welfare flags but if you have to speak to…
16 year old girl about how the fact she might be a little bit oversized for her pony and possibly needs to rethink things that is a tricky conversation to have or When was the last time that saddle was fitted because you’re looking at it and starting to feel a bit uncomfortable about your livery riding around on their horse in that saddle and Those are the sort of things that those guys are going to be talking about and we have another key speaker Amanda do you want to tell us about
Rebecca? Yeah, so Rebecca Stojak, who is a specialist equine solicitor at Geldards. If you go to Yardwise, you have to see the photo of her because it’s absolutely lovely. It’s her on her new horse, Agatha. I’m sure she won’t mind me sharing that with a giant smile on her face.
Rebecca is an extremely experienced solicitor and absolutely 100 % behind businesses who, if they’re ever in a situation, need her help. But she’s very, very pro sorting the issues out before they ever become an issue. So she will be there as a legal representative to answer any of those sticky questions that you might have. She’ll be coming along and talking about contracts.
which I think is probably a fairly topical subject at the moment, but a genuinely approachable person. And I think for some people solicitors sometimes seem a little bit scary because they do cost a little bit of money. They are an expense, but she would genuinely be encouraging people to utilise the service in order to prevent having to use them extensively.
So the prevention, you know, rather than the cure is definitely the way that she works. And she’s an incredibly approachable, bubbly, very horsey solicitor. So excited to have Becca along. think it’s important to point out as well, but we didn’t make this kind of who wants to come. We were very specific and that through a lot of research I’ve done, going back years from when I first had the idea to hold an event like this, it is not
who wants to come and tell people what they should be doing. It was who do we feel needs to be there that is going to cover all the bases and all the current problems. So again, I know when you see a lot of the other kind of industry conferences, they tend to be tailored around something specific, which perhaps isn’t relevant to everybody. But we actively sat down and came up with the list of all of the areas that we thought needed to be covered and have found who we feel are the best people to
cover those bases. One person who will be there, who I was adamant I wanted there, is Nick DeBroaier from Redwings. He’s the head of welfare and behaviour at Redwings. And what he doesn’t know about welfare and biosecurity and snotty noses probably isn’t worth knowing. And he’s always been a massive supporter of making sure that livery yard owners and riding school owners are really well supported. I actually did a webinar with him a few years back now.
And it was supposed to be a webinar, I think it was for Strangles Awareness Week one year. And he basically started off by asking the 60 or 70 attendees on Zoom about welfare, how many of them knew sort of the five domains. And it just went very quiet. And so actually it turned out into being a webinar where he explained the five domains to yard owners. And afterwards he said, I can’t believe how many yard owners don’t know this kind of
expectation is on a basic level of keeping horses. So it shows that there are some things that perhaps should be obvious for yard owners that perhaps aren’t. And whilst some of them are very well educated, have lots of experience and very, very competent, I always say, and people are probably bored of me saying this if they hear me say it a hundred times before, but yard owners open their yards because they like horses, because they have a passion for horses, being around horses, working with horses.
A lot of them do not have a passion for administration, difficult livery clients, having to manage social media pages and everything else that comes with having a business. So yes, a lot of them are great at the actual horse things, but with a lot of the other things that come, it can be a bit of a shock and then perhaps it can all become a bit overwhelming. And again, it’s a very lonely industry. So there’s so many different faucets of information that people need to have.
to run what on the outsides people seem to think is a very simple business. So yeah, that’s why we have, we were very specific to have so many experts there rather than two or three people that perhaps wouldn’t be relevant to try and make sure that it was really, you know, literally something for everybody. Absolutely. And we did quite a bit of research as well, didn’t we? So we had in our minds what we thought would be a really good day. And then we went out to yard owners and managers via Cheryl’s group.
and asked the question, said, you know, what is it you need? What is it you want? And I think that’s a really important definition to make is that in actual fact, we can all have the best ideas in the world and think, well, this is what they need and this is what they want. Actually, we’re not the ones running those businesses. And whilst we know best practice, you know, we know what those things should look like. At the end of the day, if we’re running an event for yard professionals.
those yard professionals need to want to come along because in actual fact, we are delivering things that they have told us that they need. The other thing that’s important as well is obviously, as I’ve already mentioned, and I mention a lot on my day-to-day life, it seems, there is no licensing or anything for anyone to open a yard. So the best that yard owners can do that want to be the best version of their yard is to understand what legal compliances they are.
subject to because obviously health and safety, employment, even welfare, there are actual legislation in place that they should be adhering to. But there’s also other things which are common sense, which industry standards, things such as welfare, the expectations that people would expect to have in place. And I always think the more that yard owners can be educated in these aspects, the more they can tell their clients or their potential clients or their other
equine professionals that they work with that, yes, you know, we do all this properly. And sometimes, yes, it might cost more to do things properly, but it adds value to what you do. It adds appeal to your yard. And one of the big things is that I personally want people to stand over and above these what I call, I work with what I call them, because it’s not very polite. But the yards that fly under the radar, the perhaps the less
appealing yards that perhaps cut corners, don’t do things properly, tend to be cheaper, but I know that there are yards that are cheaper that do do things properly. But we all know the sort of yards that I’m talking about. And part of it or a lot of it is to try and educate yard owners and the horse owners as well, so that when horse owners go to a livery yard and they say, well, what’s, you know, does do the other horses have to be insured? Do you have a worming policy? Do you have a new arrivals policy? Do you have livery contracts that really
It should raise red flags for horse owners if they’re at yards where either people don’t have an answer or the answer is no, and then they should be thinking, actually, well, in my understanding, this isn’t what I should be expecting these days. So there’s still a lot, a lot, a lot of yard owners that don’t understand what those expectations are because they’re new and they don’t have the information or because there’s not the regulation or anything like that. And it can be quite difficult to find the information. So.
you know, again, that’s another reason why we’ve put so many people together. But I think it’s really important and you’ve raised an important point there. A lot of these people haven’t come from a business background, haven’t come from employing people, haven’t had to do any of these sorts of things before. And how are you expected to know? Where do you get that support? Where do you learn what the tax
advantages might be or not that there are any but you know what I mean that kind of thing like where where are what are the bits I should be worried about where can I get help with this and I think definitely all the different things that you ladies do for your businesses and also support that we’ve put through our membership it’s important that that we deliver an event like this so that people can come everybody
I know who I’ve spoken to is coming, is coming with a question in mind. Like Amanda said, they’ve got one or two questions they want to find out about. And quite often it’s legal or accountancy or employment or, you know, and then the social side, because we are a community and I think for many, many people, horses is their hobby and running a livery yard is yes, health and welfare of your horses, but often it’s keeping…
the owners of the horses happy as well and what can you do for them and quite often it’s looking after their horses as best as you can. You know that that is one of the biggest things that I hear from yard owners is just communicating with people so how to communicate with deliveries, how to communicate with other equine professionals, how to communicate with people that work for them and someone else that
myself and Amanda got talking to is Lizzie Herron from the Equestria and Leadership Consultancy. And she specializes in helping with leadership and communicating. And I was saying to her, you know, about there’s such a guilt culture between livery yard owners or managers and their clients explaining things like, you know, well, we’re going to have to change the fields for such and such reason, or I’m making changes to the livery contract, your prices are going up, or like this year, where people are having to change about their
pay and the bedding because the shortages. And I said to some people, like a lot of yard owners will happily just suck up costs because they don’t want to physically or mentally face people and tell them, I need more money out of your pocket. Or, you know, I’m going to do something that might pee you off a bit now. It’s one of the biggest things that I see as in all, you know, all the time on the Facebook group, I’m putting a price, putting a price rise in place. How do I tell people?
you know, and it’s just this communication thing. So when I, when Amanda and I got speaking to Lizzie and I said to Amanda, that, that is something that people wouldn’t think of, but I think that’s a really important skill that a lot of yard owners need to perhaps develop. If you’re not, I know that some yard owners have other jobs where they’re to dealing with people, but a lot don’t, and they’re not used to that pressure and because it’s quite full on sometimes of dealing with people. And then obviously you get down dealing with.
staff and if you say the wrong thing that can get you in hot water and if you say the wrong thing to your farrier he might never come on the yard ever again and you might have to find another one and communication is a massive thing I think so that’s why we wanted to cover obviously we’re covering sort of that side of things as well as well as the practical yard management so that it’s helping people with perhaps not what would be the normal skills that people would think of when they think of a yard owner.
I think as an event entirely, you’re absolutely right. It is about practical support for these professionals. It’s about sharing experience so you feel part of a community and you don’t feel isolated anymore. And it’s about connecting with the brilliant people that we’ve managed to pull together who are the professionals who can offer you solutions for the issues that you’ve got in your business. And everyone has issues in their business.
We all bash our heads against the wall on a daily basis. It’s just finding the solutions to that. And hopefully that’s exactly what YardWise is pulling together. And yeah, I think it has the potential. And we’ve got really off topic with the speakers, haven’t we? We’ve got an all right old rant there, as is our want, isn’t it? think people can just imagine how long our Zoom meetings go on for.
and we all get a bit passionate about different things. I have a feeling that Warwick Trident College in Leamington Spire is going to be calling last orders on us on the day. They’re going to be literally dragging us out through the doors because none of us are going to want to go, which is not a bad position to be in. No, no. So we’ve also got, so thank you Amanda, we’ve also got newly MBE Lucy Catan.
is gonna be there. We’ve managed to get her and she’s gonna be talking about the code of good employment. Who else have we got ladies? We have. you go ahead Cheryl. We had a list we could do it alternately but it’s not gonna work like that. We have got
The team from SCIB Insurance Brokers here, not to sell insurance, but to advise on insurance. I’m sure they’d like to sell some as well, but predominantly they’re coming to advise. There’s Kath Purcell, who some yard owners might recognize because she’s done a couple of webinars with me before. She’s very good at knowing the ins and outs of things like care custody and control and the different liability insurance and policy limits. And their interest is…
ensuring people obviously, but also making sure that people have the correct insurance and understand what they are actually insuring rather than just blindly going in and getting a policy that perhaps doesn’t suit. So, Katherine is going to be there and I think it’s Selena as well from SEIB who I’ve met a few times. Yeah, so they’re going to be there to help out on insurance-based questions and queries.
Yep, the BHS are going to be there aren’t they? Sarah Dow and Michael Callan I believe are coming along and they’re going to have a table to talk to everybody about the BHS and how that will benefit their businesses and what they… Yeah and the support that they offer as well because they do now have business support staff folk out and about on the road which is really useful.
Yeah, that’s, that’s what Sarah is. She’s the head of business support. And I’ve worked, I’ve worked with Sarah and the BHS for quite a while now. And they really want to put an emphasis on the support that the BHS can provide to yards because like I’ve already mentioned, all the BHS and the ABRS have it, but you know, not so much for livery yards and they really are trying to get a better grasp on supporting the industry, I think. Absolutely. We have
We have to have something tech there. We absolutely have to have tech there because it is something that people need to have as an option and to understand really well as an option. So we have Adi Devanish and Deb’s King coming along from Livery Live. Again, two people who really know what they’re talking about. Adi is a yard manager herself, so she lives it. And I think that’s the other really important thing about a lot of our…
specialist is that they live it. So they have empathy and they understand. So they will be there as a workshop as well on the day. Yeah, we have Claire, Shand and Sarah coming to talk about worming and parasite control.
Which, know, if you’re running a yard, I feel like I have endless questions for the yard owner about when we’re worming and what we’re worming this week, because it seems to be an endless cycle. So I’m sure they’re going to be quite busy with lots of questions people want to. Yeah, yeah, they definitely will be. And especially around this massive topic of wormer resistance. Yeah. And also, obviously, the new kind of threat that’s coming from the large red worms. I think it’s large red worms, isn’t it? Which has just come to
to light as well. No better people to be in the room if you have questions around any of that. Who else do we have? we have Catherine Chapman, always lots of questions around VAT, which is particularly tricky for yards, business set up, whether to be limited, whether to be a sole trader. So we’ve got Catherine Chapman, who again, herself is also a yard owner at the moment. And she’s very keen in…
in helping people understand the ins and outs of accounting and bookkeeping and all exciting things like that. So, she’ll be there to answer some questions. And we’re covering a topic that I’m really excited to be bringing. I know, Amanda, you’ve kind of led the way in this a little bit with Equine Environmental Sustainability and the White Griffin team are going to be there. You know these guys, don’t you?
Yes, I have met Ruth and Zoe, again are both just inspirational people working in their areas. And actually, you know, some people sort of roll their eyes at sustainability, don’t they? But in actual fact, we are at a critical point and there are so many things that…
facilities led businesses can put in place to make a significant impact in A, their carbon footprint, but B, on their own costs. So those guys will be there and they are absolutely fascinating to talk to. And again, horsey, have horses, Zoe is incredibly horsey. So again, really understand it from the inside out. So can apply something that again is maybe
seems like a dry topic or something that people don’t necessarily want to tackle, really make it relevant. So yeah, so really, really interesting. We also have Gail Eggington from Ag Plus, which is, for those of you don’t know, she’s a biosecurity consultant and she does a lot of work in helping yard owners understand about yard cleanliness, which again is something that should come naturally, but doesn’t to all yard owners, unfortunately.
and she really makes you think about procedures and organizing, making sure the yard’s nice and tidy when it comes to biosecurity, protecting the horses that are on the premises and also when they travel and when they leave the yard coming back as well. she does a lot about helping people assess the risks that they have on their yard and putting plans and procedures in place for good yard cleanliness. I think that combined with having…
Nick there as well. And we also actually have Helen Whitelig from Red Wings who heads up the Strangler’s Awareness Week. She’s going to be there as well with Nick. So I think definitely for those biosecurity is getting a lot, a lot hotter as a topic these days. So I think between those three, they’ll be able to really give some good advice and support on, on any yards that have got questions about existing procedures or how to introduce them on the yard. No, absolutely. And then kind of in
Tandem with that as the health and safety side of the health and safety aspects, which again is a topic that has to be tackled. And people often have, you know, just nightmares around this. So we have Jane Patching and her colleague Leanne Kelly coming from IMG. Again, Jane is Equestrian. So it was coming at that health, safety and environmental angle as a consultant specifically for Equestrian businesses.
So that will be really, really useful as well.
Yeah, think people are gonna get around everybody. I know. Well, that’s the thing they only get they can only pick three of the only pick three or four pick your pain points people. That’s the most important thing. And I guess we should probably also mentioned that we’re you’re going to be fed and watered and beautifully looks after. I saw the menu. It did make my mouth water. It’s not just
crappy sandwiches and a packet of crisps, is it? No, no, it’s really nice. you’re kind of your your hosts for that are going to be Bedmax. So we have got Bedmax and Strawmax coming along to look after you in inverted commas. Hospitality sponsors. Hospitality hosts. Yeah, hospitality hosts they are. So you know, some really some really fantastic, exciting people in attendance.
I mean, you’re going to want to get there early and stay till the end. You’re not going to want to miss much. I put together, I programmed a Facebook post for next week to go off on the Yardwise Facebook page. And I actually put the faces, I actually couldn’t fit them all on, but I put the faces of a majority of the experts and I looked at it I thought, we did pretty good there actually. It’s quite good. That’s quite a lot of people. And I actually think, I can’t think anywhere else where you would get…
those people in the same room, let alone be able to go up and actually into it, because it’s in small groups. So for people that don’t know, the idea is that we have a couple of key presentations in the morning, as Helen’s already touched on. And then in the afternoon, we’re splitting off to have roundtable discussions of small, small numbers. So people can really get down into the nitty gritty of, you know, specifics of what their problems are and finding out information about specific things. So I just think that you don’t really get that.
anywhere else, certainly not on one day in one place for what I think is a very reasonable price actually. think for people to come along and spend, well it’s £95 including VAT for the ticket and that includes lunch and refreshments. So I think if you’re coming for that, that to spend on one day to come and have the opportunity to meet all these people, be really inspired and go away with an action plan about how you can
increase the value of your yard or how you can be better motivated to run the yard or changes that you want to make. I think it’s going to be a really good opportunity for anybody that comes along. I mean, £95 is a half hour call to the solicitor, isn’t it? yeah. before I forget to mention, we forget to mention the BHS have given us six CPD points as well for the event, which is more than half of the annual
quota that you have to meet. So for anyone that’s a BHS accredited professional, a lot of whom obviously run yards, or even if it’s equestrian professionals that manage yards, or otherwise involved in that aspect of the industry, then obviously they’re welcome to come along. And a lot of the CPD is obviously specific, whereas again, we’re given the opportunity for people to come and do a huge range, kind of pick and choose really, what they want to work on for the day. So that’s big bonus to anyone that’s a BHS APC as well.
Absolutely. I think it’s that £95 is a real investment in your business, isn’t it? It’s you know, you’re doing it for the betterment of your business. They are the brilliant thing. And obviously Sheryl was pointed out that we’re doing workshops, which is fantastic. But don’t panic if you can’t get on to a workshop with the particular person. Each one of those people will also those businesses will also have a like a sort of a bit of a chat area, a little bit of a stand with someone on that as well. So
If you want to do it slightly less formally, you can go and have a chat with them in that area. And we’ll also be providing a breakout area for people. If you just want to go and have a chat with your peers or if you want to bring your laptop and do some work or get a bit of help with some work whilst you’re there, there will be space for you to come and sit down and work on your business whilst you’re learning about working on your business. So it really is something quite…
quite different and we hope, you know, really inspirational and helpful and useful. I think that area is going to get quite busy because I can just imagine people are going to get ideas and thoughts and questions they didn’t even come with will suddenly light bulbs will start popping above people’s heads and they’ll say, do you know what, I need to go and speak to so-and-so and find out about that. So I can see that even if you’re not booked on to the workshop, you’re, you’re going to actually.
go and see people in their own chat areas so that you can find out a bit more. I think the problem we’re going to have is making sure the experts don’t actually all end up speaking to each other because it’s so rare that they’re all together at the same time. But isn’t the lovely thing that, you know, we’re getting all these brilliant people in room together, we’re inviting people to come and meet them, but also they’re all going to go away with…
connections, new connections, new collaborations, new ways of working that improves everything for everybody. You know, it’s obviously around, you know, supporting our professionals, but these are businesses as well. You know, they all need support. They all need, you know, that opportunity to be able to collaborate and work and find those kind of connections. I think that’s the critical word here, isn’t it? Business. This is actually about business as well. And if the
businesses do better, the industry does better. And if people’s businesses become stronger, more robust, and they can charge what they’re worth, then everybody can and therefore everybody does better. So it is about improving business, but that in turn will definitely improve our industry. And that’s why I firmly believe and I think you ladies do as well, don’t you? Yeah, I think the whole thing. So for example,
at Yardwise, everybody in that room on that day has like a symbiotic relationship with one another. So we’re holding the event for these people and the other professionals and the business owners are coming along because everybody relies on each other. So you can have two liver yard owners that have completely different yard setups, completely different ends of the country. But ultimately their aim is to make the industry
worth as much as possible to be as professional as possible and as competent as possible because then that can only bolster the success of the industry going forwards. There’s so many yards have closed, yards and riding schools, actually riding schools particularly, because there’s just so much cost and people don’t want to put the prices up like you say, Helen, they don’t properly properly charge what they need to be. So then they’re paying out their own pocket and then it’s
unsustainable, you know, it’s literally not even worth it for them. So they close their doors. So it’s really important that everybody understands that, you know, even if you have another yard owner, or one of the experts on the day, for example, that you think, perhaps, you know, what they do isn’t relevant, ultimately, it is because if you can have an understanding of how other people work, and how things should work and expectations, then it can only benefit everybody. And actually, as I’ve just touched on riding schools, we should point out that this is
equally as applicable to riding school owners or managers to come along as well because obviously there’s a lot of crossover in a lot of the themes that we’ll be covering on the day. So I know that we keep talking a lot about livery yards but obviously riding schools, mixed bags, equestrian centres, anything like that, it’s obviously relevant to the owners or managers of those as well who would be more than welcome to come along. It is, it’s yard professionals isn’t it? At the end of the day it’s yard professionals.
These business topics that we are touching on are relevant to absolutely every business. Yeah. End of. Come along. Come along. Come along. And yeah. And then we will be there. You know, we will be there. And if you want to ask us questions, then just set yourself up for another hour and a half. We like to talk.
We know, you know, it’s so exciting, isn’t it? It’s such a… excited about it. I feel like we’re bringing in an event that’s not as tired as some of the other ones that I know we’ve all been to. Yeah, it doesn’t exist, does it? This does not exist. No, it won’t be. There’ll be no num-bombs at R1. No talks at. It will be… I actually think it will be a good fun day.
I think it’d be really good to get all these yard owners, everyone in the room at the same time, have a lovely lunch, learn lots of things, know, network with everybody. I just think it will be something like there’s never been before and that’s what we wanted to try and do. you know, if they all talk as half as much as we do, we’ll be there for two days instead of just the one that we’re supposed to be here. And if it’s not, if it’s not fun, we’re not doing it again. that’s it.
Just to reiterate, yardwise.co.uk, go register November 19th at Warwick Trident College in Leamington Spa for the day. It’s £95 a ticket. And I think if you’ve listened all the way through this podcast, then I hope that you encourage, Dero, buy yourself a ticket or go with a colleague. And yep, go register and we’ll see you there. Can I say one thing? One more thing, Helen. Sorry, you know me
If you register for the event, that’s brilliant. We’ll ask you a few questions about it. If you register and you get the you’re in, that doesn’t mean you’re in, you need to buy a ticket. So if you have registered and you’ve had your lovely you’re in now, buy your ticket, buy your ticket because the spaces are limited. We are maxed out at a certain number at this event. We’re keeping it small so everyone gets the most out of it. But please, if you’ve registered your interest and you want to come along, then…
click that link that says buy my ticket. That’s a really good point actually because I’ve spoken to a lot of people who have said I’ll see you there, I’ll see you there and then I’ve said to them if you bought the ticket because that’s what guarantees your spot and I know tickets are selling pretty quickly and there’d be nothing more disappointing than getting to November and then finding out that you can’t go because it sold out back in August. Especially if you were one of the first people to register. Yes.
Also, there’s the Facebook page as well. So although the website has got information about the experts, we delve into that a bit deeper on individual posts for all the experts on the Facebook page and some other information on there as well. And that’s just very simply called Yardwise. And the LinkedIn page. Yeah, and the LinkedIn page. It’s good that we’re all professionals. We so are, but you still have fun.
We still talk over each other. Well, I’ll look forward to talking over you both in November. I’ll see you there. See you then.
