UK sport yards juggle multiple British Equestrian Federation (BEF) member bodies: British Dressage (BD), British Showjumping (BS), British Eventing (BE), Endurance GB. Each has its own:
- Membership level (full / regional / unaffiliated)
- Annual fee (£50-200)
- Horse registration (£20-60 per horse per discipline)
- Entry process
Multiply by 20 riders × 30 horses × 10 events/year. Manual handling is a part-time job.
The bottleneck
Standard yard process:
- Rider tells trainer they want to compete next month
- Trainer checks if rider is BD/BS member, paid up
- Trainer checks if horse is registered for the discipline
- Trainer logs into the federation portal, makes the entry
- Yard accountant invoices the parent / owner with breakdown
- Show day: paper schedule, drawn classes, calling
This is 30-45 minutes per entry × 50 entries/month = 20-25 hours/month.
Where automation helps
Membership status sync
Hovera (or your operations tool) keeps a roster of riders + horses with current memberships. When the trainer asks “can Sarah enter Class 4 BD next weekend?”, the answer is in the system, not in the federation portal.
Entry batching
Rather than 1 entry at a time, batch entries by show: select riders, select horses, select classes. The system pre-fills federation requirements.
Auto-billing breakdown
Entry fee × class + transport contribution + box rental + trainer fee = automatic breakdown to owners. No more “wait, what does my £350 invoice cover exactly?”
Results capture
Show results come back as PDFs from the federation. Logging them automatically against horse profiles helps with progression tracking and selling decisions.
The grading challenge
Showjumping uses double-clear / clear-round based grading; eventing uses points; dressage has percentage scores. Each updates affiliations differently. Manual tracking misses thresholds (e.g., horse exceeds Foxhunter Novice level → must move up next season).
A good system:
- Tracks every result chronologically
- Flags grading thresholds before a horse competes
- Avoids the disaster: showing in Novice when the horse is now Open
How Hovera supports BEF disciplines
Sport module:
- Rider + horse roster with BD/BS/BE membership status and renewal alerts
- Horse competition history with auto-grading calculation
- Entry batching + automatic financial breakdown
- Result import (manual now, BEF API integration in development)
- “Eligibility check” before entry: rider eligible? horse eligible? grade level OK?
Time saved on a typical sport yard: 4-6 hours per show weekend.
Sport yard demo — we’ll walk through your specific federation mix.