F & I Winter newsletter

Festive greetings to you all! It does not seem two minutes since the last newsletter but yes winter is well and truly here. As always, it’s so important to stay in touch and ensure we keep talking and supporting each other as much as possible. This time of year can be very challenging, especially if you do not have the luxury of an indoor arena and therefore lessons have to be cancelled with frozen surfaces and dangerous road conditions – and funny how clients seem to suddenly have lots of reasons for cancelling training, especially on a wet and cold day???! Please do share your winter tips on the facebook page and lets “keep Britain riding” (I would have said “kick on and keep Britain riding” but of course that would not have been appropriate at all!)

Well, first and foremost we have a new Fellow!!!! whoop whoop!! Massive well done to Liz Eaton FBHS – what an amazing achievement, and she will be a fantastic asset to us all. There was a full report about Liz and her journey so please do revisit that. We are very much looking forward to seeing her and hearing her advice on taking the Fellowship at our Annual Course… see more below.

We all had a chance for a trip to Newbury races for the great British Horse Society Awards and Charity Race day, where our own Kylie Roddy FBHS galloped home over the finish line raising lots of money and having a great time – followed by a fantastic afternoon of racing and a dinner. I was lucky enough to judge the Best Turned Out and present their trophy in the winner’s enclosure. If you haven’t been before, it’s a great chance to celebrate with so many amazing people who have often dedicated their working lives to the BHS and the horse. The awards cover many aspects including approved centres, welfare, young person’s award, unsung hero awards, volunteer of the year, committee of the year, exceptional achievement award, and included BHS Assessor presentations awarded to Donn Collins BHSI and Aart Noordijk BHSI, as well as “Changing Lives Through Horses” coach of the year Kirsty Sweeney, and “Accredited Professional Coach of the year at an approved centre” Kirsty Froggatt. Do have a look at the link on the BHS website for all the results. See you there next year – let’s make it an F&I get-together day out…
https://www.bhs.org.uk/about-us/annual-awards/award-winners-2023/

We have also had the much-needed, and very interesting and thought-provoking, BHS Coaching Conference at Talland, kindly hosted by Pammy Hutton FBHS and Tim Downes FBHS and with several other distinguished Fellows and I’s presenting. It brought up much debate on very topical subjects and I’m sure there will be much more to say on these subjects in the future. Massive thank you to the Talland team and all the horses and the riders who contributed to this day.

Not an F&I event, but many of us attended the insightful Fellows day at William and Pippa Funnell’s The Billy Stud. It is such a great honour being a Fellow and getting to go on these money-can’t-buy, behind-the-scenes trips – and taking time to have healthy debates putting the equine industry to rights, which is what happens when you get a gang of Fellows sat around a table! A really great day, thanks to our Tim Downes FBHS and David Sheerin FBHS for organising.

Now to our F&I events! We fitted in a superb December Study Day at Hartpury – thanks to Jude Murphy FBHS for organising and Danny Anholt FBHS for an excellent report covering at least the highlights of the enormous range and depth presented. Brilliant!

Meanwhile, behind the scenes, your Committee and especially Ann Bostock have been working hard to ensure the Annual Course will be as fantastic as ever. It’s such an important event for us, the main aspect being that we make time to get together and can have some “me time”, as well as network, and set ourselves up for the new year ahead. I always feel so inspired and refreshed after the course and ready to take on the new equestrian year.

This year we have Dickie Waygood MBE and Gareth Hughes as our two elite coaches, and what a fantastic two days’ training and ideas they’ll have for us. We also have Russell MacKechnie-Guire BHSI, PhD, for our Day 1 lunchtime “food for thought” session – his latest research is guaranteed to be highly relevant for us all – as well as our Fellowship discussion, Day 2 lunchtime, where we will have a couple of our latest candidates, both successful and not successful, to talk through their experiences and give advice for future Fellows coming forward. What a line-up! There is still time to apply for the course as a spectator – but if you want to attend the dinner you had better apply with your menu choices as a matter of urgency – you know the golden rules, do not upset Ann, life is just not worth living if you do!

Please can I remind you all again about the annual awards! Any thoughts about members who you feel are worthy of a nomination – we have several super ones already but there is still time – please do contact me: sam@samyork.co.uk. To remind you, the awards are as follows:
Queen Elizabeth II Award. This was a new award last year, in memory of our late Queen, for outstanding dedication to the Equine industry, as recognised by F&I.
The Pat Smallwood Award is for outstanding service to F&I and the membership.
The Achievement Award is for an F&I member who shows exceptional determination and commitment to the path they want to follow.
The Tom Searle Award is for a young up-and-coming F&I member who is supportive and inspirational for other up-and-coming members.

I look forward to hearing from you.

We have several winter-evening webinars in the pipeline for the next few months so do keep an eye on Alison’s emails, and the facebook page for those who do that, as we have some super ideas coming to light with great subjects and speakers.

Do not forget about the Horses Inside Out annual conference in February which I cannot recommend highly enough. Gillian has very kindly agreed to offer F&I members a 10% discount and that will apply up to the closing date. Discount code is (FandI) – any issues applying for this and getting the discount, just email me and Gillian will then refund anyone who didn’t get the discount to work. https://www.horsesinsideout.com/c24

Again, massive thanks to the whole committee who are working tirelessly in the background but especially Judith Murphy FBHS our Treasurer, Alison Craig BHSI our Secretary, plus Sam Champney-Warrener BHSI for our social media, and Sally Newcomb BHSI who runs our website, who together run and communicate the activities of this wonderful Association so smoothly. All credit to them as always.

Have a super festive holiday and see you all in January.

Stay warm all of you, kind regards,

Sam

Sam York
Chair, F&I