Hoof Ride's London Horse Network Meeting

Facebook: HOOF RIDE

It took my friend and I almost two hours of driving from Berkshire to Brixton but after some weak attempts at map reading and direction guessing we found The Ebony Horse Club, the place for yet another great initiative from Hoof Ride. I've enjoyed attending the meetings and seminars for the last year and I feel like they gave me a much better understanding of the industry as a whole.
Today it was all about marketing and PR, something I probably feel the strongest at but nevertheless it always helps to learn from pros.

It is very true that you can have the best possible service or product but if nobody knows about it, that value is lost.
The speaker in the morning was Jane Fraser and she talked us through some basics of SWOT analysis as well as being able to describe the businesses for what they really offer. It was all done in form of an interactive exercise which allows for comparing the problem areas as well as strong points.
Jane gave us some useful advice on how to write press releases and understand the good timing for various events.
One exercise in particular provoked a discussion on staff retention.
From the point of view of someone who was employed by many riding establishments for number of years I find it interesting that some issues the horse businesses encounter that relate to staff are the same in 2012 as they were in 2002...I guess all of us who work as grooms, instructors, bring-this-tack-up-that type staff know how we would like to be treated and what floats our employment boats but why are there no changes and same problems year after year? Do we not communicate effectively? Is it that the demands cannot be met for some reason? And if so, why?
I don't have the answers to those questions and until I employ people to work for me I don't think I can objectively assess the situation.
My opinion is that the money isn't as big a problem as some employers might think. Sure if the pay is very low nobody will want to stay for long but it's the simple respect and attention to individual needs that's important. I have friends working very long hours, mucking out 15 stables a day, tacking up horses, feeding, haying up in the fields, rushing through the day to get everything done and I have done it  myself in the past. It's hard physical work and I personally did it to be able to ride and train and so do many of my friends.
Someone said to me recently "you know, it would be nice if during an especially hard day, my employer noticed I'm running on empty and said - hey, have 10 more minutes for your coffee break, catch your breath - I would have appreciated that hundred times more than that £10 more for staying after hours".
I feel lucky to be in charge of my time and to be able to rest when I feel I need now so the quality of my job is always as high as I wish it to be but there were many days were I could identify with this statement.
Perhaps what really needs addressing is the hiring process so young people are understood, their motives known (and re-checked periodically as they change all the time) and their life plans helped with. If it's a "lifestyle reward" industry then maybe more attention is needed to non-monetary benefits.
If biggest reward for a low paid groom is to make horses in her charge look and feel great then giving her ten horses to care for with one hour a day to do them all is not going to give her any job satisfaction...

Sad procedures are still very much in place even at well regarded, nicely presented establishments. Even being freelance you come across people who think that if they pay you enough they don't have to bother with your feelings, needs or opinions. You are just a mucker-outer, horse exerciser or money maker (when you teach) they can pick and drop as they wish.
But then again, I am sure there will be people out there arguing that such situation is common across other professions, other industries...

I'm an idealist and would love to see happy people doing what they love and having pleasure doing it. Whether it is possible in real life? I hope so. It's great these issues are discussed and there are employers out there though who stroke the right balance.

I do love to see places like Ebony Horse Club. No idea about staff satisfaction there but it's one great place that must be changing so many lives in the area.

London Horse Network Meeting 3: Your horse spooked because of something you thought about, before you thought it...How the coach can influence the rider, how the rider can influence the horse, training bursaries and Look Forward

Photo: Nosing around the lovely mini yard (see these trees so very close to the buildings? well, one of the stables has one of those trees in the corner of it :) My camera has no flash so I didn't take a photo but it looked rather interesting!)

At yet another inner-city riding centre- the Wormwood Scrubs Pony Centre, the London Horse Network organised it's 3rd meeting.

Hoof Ride London. The London Horse Network Training Workshop

The Network is definitely growing more into what it aims to be: a facilitator of communication between London's equestrian businesses and instructors. I was looking forward to today's meeting and it was definitely worth coming to. The first guest - Andrew MacFarlane of Lead Change, gave a very interesting talk about "How the coach can influence the rider".  Coaching Psychology is absolutely fascinating because you realise that with the right approach you can achieve more than you ever thought you would. 

As coaches we have to learn how to change people's behaviour and/or actions to help them become who they want to be as riders.

However, it seems that change is a very complex key to improvement! Andrew quoted some medical statistics to us.

How many of every 10 heart surgery patients do you think change their lifestyle when they are told they will die if they don't?  

One. Out of ten.

Change is so difficult than even when facing death threat these patients were unable to alter their lifestyle. 

Andrew then proceeded to explain how we can help the riders to make the changes needed for improvement. It's something I am really interested in and read a bit about and I found the talk really insightful. 

We can't change something on the level it happened. We need to consider all the levels: the environment, behaviour, skills & competences, values & beliefs and identity. The latter constitutes the top level and that;s where the change has to start if we are to succeed in it. 

Andrew also talked about mental maps and the role of unconscious mind in actions of the conscious mind. This is another thing about learning to ride I am fascinated about. Horses are extremely perceptive animals. I've taught people who would try to convince me they weren't nervous or worried and yet their horse would be spooky and fidgety. A man can fool a man, you can try to fool oneself too but you can't fool a horse ;) 

Our conscious mind is way behind our subconscious. It's like when your horse spooks before you thought it might spook. In fact, your subconscious thought it before you became conscious of the thought itself...

We also talked about learning styles, what blocks the rider's progress and how to teach so we don't overload with information. 

Click on the below photo if you would like to read more about Lead Change. 

Next on the agenda was identifying the training aims of the London Horse Network. We divided into small groups and discussed our views on the challenges of running equestrian businesses in London. I have a feeling something really positive will come out of the LHN actions...

The next guest speaker was Janet Coe, the BHS London representative. It looks like BHS London has £12.000 to spend on Training Bursaries which will be available in form of £250 worth of training aids. From what I understood this will only be available at BHS Approved riding establishments and to be spent on training with BHS qualified instructors. There is no details as yet about the ways of choosing who the bursaries will go to but the ins and outs should be decided in February. 

I am keeping a watchful eye on anything like this as I would love to be able to take some more days off work to go and train with Anna R-D!

The closing talk of the day was by Minnette Rice-Edwards. 

The first time I've heard of Minnette was in 2003. I was hacking with a client whose horse had had to be put down some months previously and she was trying to keep up with the riding. I told her I wanted to sort my seat out and get into dressage more but I didn't know where to look for a trainer (it was just after I came over to the UK). She said "You just must go for a lesson with Minnette Rice-Edwards". My English wasn't very good back then and although I asked her to repeat the name I couldn't understand her accent and had no clue how the name should have been spelled. I found lots of other people under the name I thought was right but none had anything to do with riding ;) 

So now, in 2011 I actually got to listen to Minnette and all I can say is I wish I asked that client to write the name down. 

To learn more about Minnette have a look at her website: 

Fortunately, a year or so after the hacking conversation I came across a Centred Riding instructor who taught me many of the training techniques that Minnette uses. I would still love a lesson with her though! 

Some of her sayings I've never heard before and I'm sure they would be helpful for many riders. For example, many riders know they need to "let go" in the neck muscles to allow the shoulders and back to widen and release the lower back. However, it's not always so easy to do it in practice. Minnette discovered that you can imagine the roof of your mouth being like arches and thinking about it automatically releases your neck muscles (she did say it might not work for everybody but it did for me). 

Another one is for kids to keep their heads up and sit straight: imagine you have rabbit ears growing up and up and up ;) 

Not sure about my rabbit ears but my eyes are closing down, early night then two very packed days with late night teaching for me. 

Speak soon :) 

London Horse Network Meeting at Mudchute Equestrian Centre

I took a precious day off work today to attend a meeting organised by the British Equestrian Federation (BEF) and HOOF-ride London's London Horse Network.

The place on the meeting was given to me and I had no idea what to expect but the Agenda seemed interesting. The main idea is to find a sustainable and clever way to allocate the government funding that is being made available as a part of London 2010 legacy.

More about this on the BEF website HERE.

The meeting was held at the Mudchute Equestrian Centre in East London - a burst of green and trees and animals with large peaks of Canary Wharf in the distance. Very surreal setting but they have lovely facilities including large all-weather surface arena, restaurant with some yummy soups and muffins etc and they also have the cutest rabbits and guinea pigs in the cool little houses with little gardens for them ;) Check out their website:

http://www.mudchute.org/equestrian-centre

I didn't research my travel arrangements well and missed the fact there actually was a very easy connection from where I live to Mudchute. Instead, I took a Central Line and it was the most dreadful journeys I had for a long time. Makes me wonder if the commuters on that line developed some changes in their DNA or some other superior adaptations that help them deal with lack of oxygen, space and the type of heat you can only get if you stuff 100 people in a 30 people container.

Now, the DLR on the other hand, was a pleasure to travel on and what lovely views :)

Arrived at the place nice and early for a change and met the people running the meeting: BEF's London Representative David Gadsby, the Volunteer Chair to London Horse Network - Jodie Maile and Anna Bruce from Eventerprise PR, PR Advisor to the Network.

Majority of the delegates taking part were proprietors of London riding schools, some of whom I met before. It was really interesting to listen to their point of view on variety of issues facing the industry and although some attitudes were a bit disheartening the general outcome of the meeting turn up to be very inspiring and motivational.

The reason I agreed to take the place on the meeting in the first place was to learn how to obtain funding for a little London riding school I freelance at but it all turned up to be a very educational experience in many other areas.

The Aims

The London Horse Network (LHN) has 5 aims:

-attract more participants to the sport

-support existing riding schools to improve standards

-identify a mechanism for providing affordable training for those in the industry

-develop links with local and national government, county sports partnerships and schools

-work collectively to attract funding and investment (revenue and capital) into the equestrian industry in London.

Our first task was to rank the above in the order of importance... Let's just say it was an interesting discussion with some surprising outcome in some cases!

I personally found this part of the meeting very insightful. My aim has always been to run the Academy with co-operation with existing riding centres to bring benefits to all parties: the establishments, the riders and myself. However, after visiting many riding schools over the past year I learned that there is a lot of barriers to be fought.

The chance to listen to and take part in the discussion today made me feel like I am starting to understand the ins and outs of this industry a bit better.

Funding

There are some fabulous opportunities out there for anybody to tap into but the bureaucracy and logistics of it all is mind boggling.

The two organisations/initiatives that were presented at the meeting today were:

Pro-Active London (their leaflet alone is like a one long list of abbreviations!) - once you translated all the abbreviations and made sense out of every single one you can proceed to appreciate the website which is actually very informative and helpful.

Kerry Smith, Relationship Manager, introduced us to the way the organisation works and how to make use of it. It's not easy!

Then Katie Couchman, Project manager of The Skills Active and The National Skills Academy... Now, this is a one wonderful initiative but again, you almost need to employ a full-time fund searcher to turn your head around all the details. If you work most hours of the day most days of the month you might just not quite manage...

Either way, the general feel was of great support and I am feeling very enthusiastic about learning more on the subject.

My grand mission is to obtain the funding for the indoor/covered arena for Barnfield Riding School as well as develop the Academy into a coaching initiative that isn't just providing me with an interesting job but that helps to deliver a quality training for London riders.

One guest speaker who made it quite simple and very encouraging was a lady from Emile Faurie Foundation. She spoke about a few initiatives the Foundation had started with and their results are amazing.

They do a lot of simple fund rising as well as applying for funds and their newest undertaking is an Art Exhibition: "I found horses..." More about it here:

"Proceeds from this art exhibition will help the Foundation continue transforming young lives."

There are more meeting/seminars scheduled soon with some very interesting content so I am looking forward to those already.

Oh, and let's don't forget the Rabbits: