Recreational Awards FAQ’s

Our BHS recreational awards are exclusive to our Accredited Professional Coaches and Approved Riding Schools to deliver. This suite of awards offers horse owners and riders a fun, informal, and flexible way to learn more about horses and develop their skills in a non-pressured, friendly environment.

You'll find awards suitable for all ages and abilities, from complete beginners to experienced equestrians looking to refresh their knowledge or explore new topics. The awards cover a wide range of topics from horse care, stable management, riding, lungeing, horse ownership, equine first aid and breeding, to name a few! These awards are grouped into three distinct programmes: Pony Stars, Horse Explorers and Challenge Awards

Ultimately, all the recreational awards are designed to keep people engaged and passionate about horses. We also really hope they help foster a supportive community where they can build friendships and encourage each other in the equine environment they love.

Each of our recreational award programmes is designed for a specific audience, and they each come with tailored resources, rewards, and coach support materials. As a guide, here are the typical age groups for each:

• Pony Stars: Under 12s
• Horse Explorers: Teens and young adults
• Challenge Awards: Adults

However, please remember to use your judgement and discretion to choose the awards that will best suit your participants, regardless of their age!

This is a question we hear often! The Horse Explorers and Challenge Awards do share some topics, and here's why.

When we first launched the Challenge Awards, they were designed with adult recreational riders in mind. However, we got lots of feedback from coaches who felt that younger clients could absolutely achieve these awards too! The only barrier was that the original booklets didn't quite resonate with a younger audience.

So, that's where Horse Explorers comes in! We created this range specifically for younger participants. The really important thing to remember is that the core content for the awards is exactly the same. The only difference is the accompanying participant booklet, which has a design and feel that's more appealing to younger riders.

The awards that you'll find in both the Horse Explorers and Challenge Awards series are:

• About the Horse bronze and silver
• About the Rider bronze and silver

This means when you head over to our online resource shop to order your participant packs, you'll have the flexibility to choose either the Challenge Awards design or the Horse Explorers design for any of these awards.

What's Unique About Horse Explorers?

It's also worth noting that the Horse Explorers range offers something extra special: an exclusive set of Leadership Awards. These awards are all about helping young people build and develop crucial life and work skills that will be incredibly beneficial in any future education or career path they choose.

Head over to our Horse Explorers coach page to learn more about these awards..

Anyone who wants to learn more about horses can participate! We offer a diverse range of awards to suit every interest and skill level. This includes:

• Awards for ridden and non-ridden activities.
• Awards for current owners or those considering purchasing or loaning their first horse or pony.
• Even parents/carers/guardians of pony-mad children can get involved!

There are no entry requirements, age restrictions, or prior experience needed to participate.

No, BHS membership is not required for participants.

However, we always welcome you to recommend that your participants consider joining us as a member. Their support directly contributes to the charitable work we do to improve the lives of horses. We offer a range of membership packages designed to suit all horse lovers.

Yes, absolutely! All of our award products are completely flexible, and you and your participants can pick and mix the awards to suit their skills, experience and ambitions. You can begin at any award, at any level. The only exception to this is Ride Safe silver award must be achieved before moving on to Ride Safe gold or platinum awards.

To ensure the quality and consistency of our awards, only BHS Accredited Professional Coaches and coaches at BHS Approved Riding Centres are authorised to deliver and assess our recreational awards.

If you’re delivering within a BHS Approved Riding Centre, while we don’t enforce a minimum coaching qualification requirement, we do recommend that any coach who doesn’t hold at least the BHS Stage 3 Coach in Complete Horsemanship is supported by a qualified coach of this standard or higher. Ultimately, your centre proprietor or manager is responsible for ensuring their team is suitably experienced for the coaching sessions they’re delivering.

We highly recommend attending one of our online information session. These sessions are a fantastic way to familiarise yourself with everything you need to know before you start. To find our next session, head over to our Challenge Awards APC resource page.

It's really important to know that BHS recreational awards cannot be delivered within non-BHS Approved Riding Centres. If you're ever in doubt about a venue, please don't hesitate to contact us before you start your course – we're always happy to advise!

Delivering practical awards:

The large majority of BHS recreational awards have a practical focus. This is to encourage participants to develop their skills and confidence in a structured way with support from their coach. Because of this, awards that involve practical skill development must not be delivered online or via remote coaching. Here are a few suitable options for delivering these practical awards:

1. At a BHS Approved Riding Centre: These are always ideal venues, especially if participants don't have their own horses or their horses aren't suitable.
2. At a participant's livery yard or hired facility: You can deliver at a participant's livery yard (even if it's not a BHS Approved Livery Yard) with their own horse(s).
3. Facilities like a British Riding Club ground if you're coaching a BRC group.

• Quick tip: If you're hiring a facility, just double-check that the venue has its own public liability cover for hiring out/using their facilities for lessons. This is usually detailed on their policy schedule.

Classroom or online learning:

We also offer several recreational awards that focus solely on knowledge and don't require practical activity. Only these awards can be delivered via classroom or online learning. If you're delivering these from a riding centre, it must be a BHS Approved Riding Centre. These awards are:

• Horse Health
• Horse Knowledge Part One
• Horse Knowledge Part Two
• Breeding Part One: To breed or not to breed
• Breeding Part Two: Breeding and foaling
• Breeding Part Three: Care of the foal and young horse

Coaching Outside the UK and Ireland:

The same rules about BHS Approved Riding Centres apply. Additionally, please ensure you have the necessary insurance cover for the country you're in. You may also need to adapt some content to account for different husbandry practices outside of the UK.

If your riding school is BHS Approved, then absolutely you can!

However, if your riding school is not BHS Approved, you won’t be eligible to deliver any of our BHS recreational awards there. If you'd like more information on becoming a BHS Approved Centre, please contact our Approvals team at approvals@bhs.org.uk, or call 02476 840509.

The information sessions we host for coaches are completely free of charge.

The main cost you'll encounter is for the participant resource packs, which you'll need to purchase for each individual taking part. The price varies slightly depending on the specific award you're delivering. All these details will be thoroughly explained in an information session or can be found listed in the relevant Coach Handbook.

The great news is that you have the flexibility to set your own fees for delivering our recreational awards.

We do recommend factoring the cost of the participant resource packs into your overall course fees. These awards are designed to integrate easily into your clients' regular riding or stable management lessons, making them a natural addition to your existing offerings.

You set the costs for training and assessing participants for our recreational awards, giving you full control over your pricing.

We've worked hard to keep our costs for the resources as low as possible, which means we're unable to provide further direct discounts. However, we do offer 'bulk buy discounts' on some of our resources, which you can take advantage of to help reduce your expenses. You're also welcome to offer your own discounts to different client groups at your discretion.

What participants receive depends on the specific award product you're delivering, as there are different resources and rewards for Pony Stars, Horse Explorers, and Challenge Awards.

You'll find all the details about the resources and rewards available for participants – including how to purchase and when to present them – during a coach information session. Alternatively, you can find this information in the relevant Coach Handbook on the APC Hub. There's a minimal fee for these resources, which simply covers our production costs.

This is completely up to you – there are no set time frames for any award.

As part of the resources we offer for you are suggestions and ideas for content and activities to include in your sessions. While these session plans are a fantastic guide, they're not compulsory. We strongly encourage you to adapt them to suit your participants, your facilities, the time of year, and the horses available. You might also plan to spend more time on certain areas, or even repeat sessions, to build participant confidence and ensure they have ample time to achieve the required skills.

As the coach, you have the flexibility to train and sign off your participants for all of the awards on an ongoing, informal basis. This allows for a continuous and supportive learning environment.

If you are an Accredited Professional Coach and have opted to include the insurance within your membership package, you are covered to coach riders on their own horse(s) for the activities within the awards. This cover also includes Care, Custody, and Control, allowing you to handle those horses during demonstrations, as appropriate.

For Approved Centres, you'll need to adhere to your own riding school's insurance conditions.

We also highly recommend that you, as the coach, check that the venue hosting your session has appropriate public liability cover in place for the hiring out/use of their facilities for the lesson.

For full details on your insurance cover provided through your APC membership, please visit the Accredited Professionals Hub.

If participants are using horses provided by a third party or a centre (whether for riding or non-riding awards), that centre must be BHS Approved. The BHS Approvals Team offers a range of packages for various types of riding or education establishments.

In either instance, you'll likely need a local authority license depending on your specific activities. While a Riding School License is typically required when riding tuition takes place (including polo, ridden pony parties, hunter hirelings, etc.), an activity like "stable management" or lungeing could potentially fall under the requirement for an Animal Exhibits License.

Currently, this will be at the discretion of your Local Authority's interpretation of the Defra Procedural Guidance. We strongly suggest you contact your Local Authority and ask for written confirmation specific to your activities.

Yes, this is generally acceptable as long as the arrangement is solely between the two participants, and you (as the APC) are not involved in selecting or pairing the horse and rider.

It's crucial that both participants ensure they have public liability cover. If there's a claim, it may be directed to the horse's owner or rider, as your APC policy only covers the instruction element.

No, your APC insurance does not provide cover for the hiring out of facilities or arenas. This should fall under your property insurance.

Yes, activities related to the Ride Fit awards are acceptable under your APC policy, provided they are carried out during the lesson and not as a separate class.

We recommend encouraging participants to volunteer at a BHS Approved Centre. If they volunteer at another centre or a livery yard, that facility must have relevant insurance in place and be able to take responsibility for volunteers.

Participants may also find volunteering opportunities with British Riding Clubs. Please contact your local club for further guidance or refer to the BRC website.

The Riding for Disabled Association (RDA) is another fantastic option for young people to volunteer. You can find an RDA group to volunteer for at their website:

https://www.rda.org.uk/rda-groups/

Yes, absolutely! Participants may assist you in your coaching sessions and complete all sections of the award under your supervision. As an APC, you must produce and regularly update risk assessments for all activities undertaken by the participants as part of the awards process.

BHS recreational awards are designed for a wide range of individuals – horse owners, loaners, recreational riders, and anyone passionate about learning more about horses and developing their skills for personal enjoyment and achievement.

It's important to understand that these awards are not industry-recognised qualifications for the professional equestrian market.

If you have clients who are aspiring to work in the equestrian industry, we offer dedicated professional qualifications that are perfect for their career goals. As an APC or Approved Centre, you can absolutely offer training towards these qualifications too!

For clients aiming for an equestrian career, we strongly recommend they pursue the BHS Stage 1 Care and Ride instead of the recreational awards. BHS Stage 1 will provide them with the foundational knowledge and skills needed to prepare for future professional assessments and their chosen career path.

For clients aiming for a career in the equestrian industry, we recommend they pursue the BHS Stage 1 Care and Ride instead of the recreational awards. BHS Stage 1 will provide excellent preparation for future professional assessments and their career.

However, there is a direct entry link from specific Horse Explorers Awards and Challenge Awards to BHS Stage 2 for participants who wish to transition to our suite of professional qualifications.

While some recreational awards offer an alternative route into Stage 2, it's crucial not to imply they are equivalent to or contribute towards a Stage 1 qualification. Misrepresenting this has unfortunately led to feedback and complaints from participants who believed they had achieved Stage 1. It's important to remember that these awards are designed as recreational courses for everyday riders to improve skills, not as professional qualifications. While they cover fundamental skills related to Stage 1, they don't directly equate to it, as the content has a broader, less industry-specific remit.

To apply for direct entry, copies of the relevant award certificates must be provided to our Education Team for approval. Please ensure you read our detailed guidance on direct entry for full information on our process.

Here's how completion of certain recreational awards can provide direct entry into our professional pathways:

Groom Pathway:

Completion of the following Horse Explorers/Challenge Awards will provide entry to BHS Stage 2 Care* and Stage 2 Lunge*

• About the Horse - silver

Groom with Riding Pathway:

Completion of the following Horse Explorers/Challenge Awards will provide entry to BHS Stage 2 Ride*

• About the Rider – silver

Complete Horsemanship Pathway:

Completion of the following Horse Explorers/Challenge Awards will provide entry to BHS Stage 2 Care*, Stage 2 Lunge* and BHS Stage 2 Ride*:

• About the Horse - silver
• About the Rider - silver

Upon completion of the Stage 2 Care, Lunge and Ride, participants can then progress to the Stage 2 Coaching within the Complete Horsemanship Pathway.

Ride Leader Pathway:

Completion of the following Horse Explorers/Challenge Awards will provide entry to BHS Stage 2 Riding Out**:

• About the Horse - silver
• About the Rider - silver

BHS Stage 2 Care is also required to achieve the Ride Leader Stage 2 qualification.

Important Note on Age & Membership: The minimum age requirement for a participant to sit any Stage 2 Care, Lunge, or Ride assessment is 14 years old, and they must hold a BHS Gold Membership.

The minimum age requirement for a participant to sit Stage 2 Riding Out assessment is 18 years old, and they must hold a BHS Gold Membership.

Completion of the Ride Safe silver award is a requirement for awarding BHS Stage 1 Ride and BHS Stage 1 Complete qualifications.

A learner may book and take the BHS Stage 1 Ride assessment before completing the Ride Safe award. The learner will receive feedback from their assessment but will not receive any qualification certificates due until completion of the Ride Safe award.

There are two options to notify us of completion of the Ride Safe award:

1. The participant can email us a copy of their Ride Safe silver certificate.
2. The coach notifies us via the Achievement Tracker online form.

The participant can complete the Ride Safe silver award via Challenge Awards or Horse Explorers.