British Horse Society launches success campaign at Badminton

The British Horse Society will launch a campaign to highlight its successes at Badminton (1-4 May) with new banners and leaflets on the BHS stand (No: 106). Entitled 'So what did the British Horse Society do last year?' the banners will announce the Society's achievements in 2002 supported by leaflets giving more detail and an opportunity to join the equestrian world's largest membership organisation at a rate that stays the same as last year (Gold membership).

Chief Executive Kay Driver explained, "Despite a great deal of press coverage of our work we are often asked the question. 'What does the BHS do?' and we are addressing that question with these banners and leaflets. The work achieved by the BHS on behalf of every horse and rider is phenomenal, too much to include in one leaflet so we have focused on our successes of last year, fully reflecting the many areas of horse welfare.

"We are also pleased that we are able to keep Gold membership rates at last year's prices, representing great value for money. We have achieved these successes with 58,000 members and would like to achieve more in the future. To do so means we need to increase our membership and with 2.5 million riders* there is a huge market out there."

The new BHS banners will show that in 2002 the BHS:
* Promoted the BHS Ragwort Bill in the House of Commons
* Organised 50 BHS TREC competitions
* Opened 200 miles of bridleway
* Supported over 400 affiliated Riding Clubs
* Monitored over 700 Approved Riding Establishments
* Achieved 3199 broadcasts of a Road Safety video
* Ran exams for 9000 candidates
* Responded to over 30000 welfare enquiries

Many of these achievements are annual and on-going. In addition, the BHS represents the horse world on the Rural Affairs Forum and actively campaigns to remove VAT from riding hats, regarded as a tax on safety. The Society launched its new Approved Livery yard scheme in 2002, providing a benchmark for quality in an area currently with no other regulation.

www.bhs.org.uk

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