BE present a partially rosy picture at their AGM

 

The British Eventing AGM took place on Tuesday 16^th December and so I Zoomed in to see where the sport was at following what CEO Rosie Williams had described elsewhere as “a brilliant year for our sport”.  The AGM was a very dumbed down affair from what I expected, in fact my notes contain the term “unprofessional fiasco” which is probably unfair, but if the intention was to demonstrate an organisation which was being frugal with members cash, then they certainly succeeded.

We all need to enjoy our sport

©Harveywetdog

Following a quick update from acting Chairman Sandeep Katwala it was over to Rosie for her update on the year. Rosie gave a positive summary of 2025 recording that success had covered all levels of the sport from the European Championships to BE80. She also told us that the year had seen "good figures" when it came to retention of members without going into specific details.

The picture changed drastically when it came to the Chief Financial Officer's Report presented by Wayne Schofield. Wayne explained that 2024 had seen a £13k deficit following the surplus enjoyed in 2023. Wayne presented a picture of reduced reserves and tightening cash flow and the necessity of "refilling the reserves" in 2026. He indicated that membership was in fact continuing to fall, and added that 2026 would need to see pricing changes and efficiency measures.

One thing that surprised me from Wayne's presentation was how much reliance was placed on our membership fees and horse registrations to fund British Eventing. Perhaps I had imagined the income from the events themselves would play a more significant part, but apparently this is not the case.

Despite Rosie’s earlier reassuring words, Wayne’s assessment of the year ahead painted a much bleaker picture. As well as the aforementioned pricing changes and efficiency measures Wayne indicated that they were looking to create new income streams (we wait to see what that means) and also hoped to extract more from corporate partners. You know my views on corporate partners - nobody does anything for nothing and I really don’t see an army of altruistic eventing sponsors lining up to fund the sport without getting something back in return. The bottom line is the membership still end up paying.

The Q&A was quickly dealt with before the meeting descended into chaos as the panel waited the voting results from Mi Voice. Rosie soldiered bravely on, expanding on what she had said earlier but also adding, in response to a late question from Mike Etherington-Smith?, that British Eventing were once again trying to embrace the unaffiliated market place. Rosie’s exact phrase was that they were looking to “put our arms around everyone” involved with eventing with an “emphasis on collaboration”. Fine words; we wait to see how that pans out and if it is able to repair the damage caused by the previous heavy handed stance taken with venues running unaffiliated events.

Ultimately the results came through, we were told Jan Cottam had been elected to the board, and then we all went on our way.

Two final observations; firstly I can’t recall any specific mention of the Howden Way at the AGM and I wondered if it had fallen by the wayside. However when I looked at the review of the year in the British Eventing magazine, I noted that the Howden Way still figured strongly.

Secondly, and remembering that equine welfare is our number one priority, there was no mention of social license or any specific report on horse safety. My conclusion was that the existential threat of lack of funding, currently far outweighs that of a lack of social license brought about by a lack of emphasis on equine welfare.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Harveywetdog/Author - David Robinson CEng FIET 

David spent approaching 50 years in Her Majesty's Electricity Supply Industry before retiring

He was part of the highly successful design team on the Sizewell B Nuclear Power Station Project before spending 25 years producing safety cases to keep our aging AGR fleet generating for the good of the nation

He is responsible for the Harveywetdog YouTube Channel which he maintains as an outlet for his creative talents

David has experienced blood cancer treatment but refuses to be a victim

All views are of course his own but might be influenced by the medication he's had to take