H&H interview We talk to BHS chief executive Lynn Petersen about her leadership
The British Horse Society’s chief executive talks to Sarah Jenkins about finding the right people, the importance of good manners and changing lives
LYNN PETERSEN didn’t sit on a horse until her 30s, yet she’s now the driving force behind an astonishing boom in Britain’s largest equestrian organisation. She is in her fifth year as British Horse Society (BHS) chief executive. In that time the charity’s membership figures have increased by 40% — to 103,000. In the five years prior to that, numbers increased 10%.
“The society was ticking along nicely but not fulfilling its potential,” says Lynn, sitting by the fire in the drawing room of her home, which is something straight out the pages of Country Life, with stunning views of the Chiltern Hills beyond the outdoor arena where Pony Club members trained last week.
The secret of her success is “getting the right people in the right roles”.
In 2010, she was working as a director for the “brilliant” Outward Bound Trust and watching her godchildren go off on gap years.
“I thought, excuse me, is there an age limit on this?” jokes Lynn, who went to teach English as a second language at Nicolas Robinson primary school in Ethiopia. After two weeks, the couple behind the charity that set up the school — Rainbows4children — asked her to become head. Lynn said, “What do you want this to be?”, and they said, “For it to be one the best schools in the region.” Lynn replied: “That isn’t going to happen. You don’t have the right people.”
“So I travelled around with my happy interpreter and found two incredible people to run the school. It’s now one of the top three in the region. That’s not dissimilar to what I’ve done with the BHS,” explains Lynn.
She spent her first year at the helm of the BHS travelling and listening to people.
“They were just frustrated we weren’t doing more,” she says.
Proprietors of BHS-approved centres would complain that “Harry down the road” had also been approved. Not because they didn’t want Harry as competition, but because they wanted Harry to be better so as not to decrease the value of their BHS approval.
Lynn challenged her team with raising the bar, which wasn’t easy given that riding schools are being turned into golf courses in this country.
“Then we had a safety department that wasn’t public facing enough,” she recalls. “And we needed to be clearer on what our welfare department was. We are not a rehoming charity, we tackle welfare through education.”
That can be anything from its “Friends at the End” campaign, supporting owners finding it hard to have their horse euthanised, to health clinics offering free castration.
UNDER Lynn’s leadership the
BHS is focusing on the industry’s biggest issues, such as business rates. Without thriving riding schools, our sport is not going to grow. April’s increase in business rates — more than 300% for the top few — has harmed an industry already struggling with rising insurance and increasing costs. Happily, the BHS are all over this.
Lynn explains: “Dame Caroline Spelman has taken up the challenge with us and we’ve managed to get a very high profile on the issue. When we met with the Chancellor of the Exchequer to discuss the problem he was already aware of our statistics. We’ve made ourselves pivotal to that conversation.”
Then there’s the access issue — if people cannot enjoy riding safely on the roads and bridleways, they will move away from the sport. Again, the BHS is on the case, its “Dead? Or Dead Slow?” campaign reaching more than 42 million people.
One of Lynn’s most admirable qualities is her commitment to going places while being polite. When I’ve met her previously she’s discussed the need for the word “please” in any request for road users to slow down. When we meet this time she describes her dislike of the old BHS practice of slapping legal notices on public rights of way that have been gated by private landowners.
“You can’t use law to enforce these things, you have to use law as back-up. You have to sit and talk to people,” she says, adding, “This country takes footpaths for granted. We don’t understand how precious the access issue is.”
In 2026, it will become apparent, at the cessation of routes not properly documented. Meaning, if the bridleway isn’t on the map, you won’t be able to use it. “To lose that is to lose a major part of our heritage,” cautions Lynn.
LYNN grew up in New York, passionate about horses, which were “totally out of reach — financially”.
“I satisfied myself with books and westerns. I didn’t sit on a horse until my early 30s — so just a few years ago,” she says with a chuckle. “I would have worked my socks off to groom a pony, let alone ride.”
Following two careers — senior management roles in sales and marketing with companies including Time magazine and Kraft General Foods — Lynn had the opportunity.
“I made the mistake of buying a horse while learning to ride and nearly killed myself. Now I’m convinced people should stay in a riding school until they are ready, ” she says.
Education — in its obvious sense and across welfare, safety and access — “is the reason the BHS exists,” says Lynn. Two of her favourite projects are “On the Move”, where the organisation takes a vehicle to schools to show children equestrian career opportunities, and “Changing Lives through Horses”, which supports centres providing an experience with horses to help troubled young people back into school or employment. It is extraordinary, moving work that deserves government funding given the positive impact it is having on societies.
“Funding comes down to local councils and we know how squeezed they are,” says Lynn. “We’re talking to the right people in government who should be interested, but these things grind incredibly slowly so we’re doing our own fundraising.
“There’s something about a horse that’s undeniable when it comes to teaching things like accountability and communication,” adds Lynn — things that, without, lead young people to be excluded. “They have to contain their anger and build confidence and self-worth. We’ve seen people who were in a very bad place straighten themselves out.”
The BHS is also on the case tackling the gap in education for horse owners who don’t want to make riding their career, launching their Challenge Awards, which allow owners to test and develop their knowledge once they’ve left the riding school, under the guidance of a BHS-trained instructor.
The BHS education system, revamped in recent years to “focus on what people don’t know”, is the envy of the world. There are BHS-approved centres in the UAE, USA,
Hong Kong, China and Singapore, with further countries enquiring. This commercial side of the BHS is proving profitable, too, which bodes well for the growth Lynn aspires to.
“With anything, you just need to decide what you want it to be and how you are going to get there,” says Lynn. “That last bit can get complicated. But the dream, your vision, should come from the heart and inspire people.”
By transforming the organisation, Lynn’s convincing thousands more members to sign up, not just for the insurance benefits, but because people are now realising that this is the organisation working to keep our bridleways open, stop horses dying on the roads, sustain the level of equestrian knowledge in Britain and fight for a fairer deal for our industry.