Tell us a little bit about your career to date.

I graduated from Cirencester in 2010 having completed the Rural Land Management Degree. Following my graduation, I had a couple of months at home before starting with Butler Sherborn in October of the same year. My father, who works for Knight Frank, always said that I could ride eventing full time if I wanted to do so, on the condition that I qualified first, so that I had something to fall back on, if needed.

How many years have you been at Butler Sherborn?

I have now been with Butler Sherborn for 12 years!

Tell us about your role at Butler Sherborn and what that involves.

I started work in our head office in Cirencester within our Rural Department. After 2 years, I took my Assessment of Professional Competence (APC) and my Central Association of Agricultural Valuers (CAAV) exams in order become a qualified Chartered Surveyor.  I then moved to our Stow -on- the- Wold office to focus more on agency work, and to develop my specialisation in Farm and Equestrian property.

What is/are your favourite elements of your job at Butler Sherborn?

I most enjoy acting for clients in the sale of the top end equestrian property. We deal with some incredible properties and much of our work happens off market, with clients wanting us to find buyers without going to the open market.

Tell us a little bit about your eventing career. Did you train with anyone on another yard before setting up on your own? If so who was it and how long were they based there for?

I have always been based at home, I didn’t have the typical, ponies, junior, young riders start in eventing. We were very much a hunting and point to pointing family. Mum was the DC of the North Warwickshire Pony Club, and I was part of our pony club eventing team, which went to the Championships most years. Alongside the eventing, I was also riding the pointers that we trained at home. I rode pointing for about 5 seasons, before focussing on the evening, when I started to get more rides for owners.  As my experience has developed so has the quality of horses we have to compete.

Tell us a little bit about your most experienced horses, what level they are competing at, who owns them and their goals for the forthcoming 2023 season.

Having retired my top 5* horse, Galley Light, a couple of seasons ago, we have been building up a string of quality, younger horses. We have around 15 horses competing currently.  I have two very exciting 8 year olds, who completed their first 4*’s at Blenheim this year.  Gun Law, owned by Nicky and Victor Lay, and Annsfort Simba owned by Joss Rosenberg. Both horses were purchased as 3 year olds from the Monart and Go For Gold Sales. Its great to have such exciting horses, aiming for their first 4* long format events next year, especially for these long standing and very supportive owners.  We also have some smart younger horses coming though the grades.  We have never had such depth and quality to the team of horses, and its incredibly exciting.

Who do you train with on the flat and with your jumping?

Both Sarah and I train with Gareth Hughes on the flat. He is based locally and has really improved the quality of our flatwork over the past couple of seasons. Gareth has a very uncomplicated way of training, which really suits us both. For our show jumping, we train with Ros Morgan. Having trained with a number of different people over the years, we find that Ros has managed to get the best out of our horses, and she is often at the big events to warm the horses up. Its great for her to be able to see in person how the horses jump on the last day of a long format event, as she can then work on the aspects that they find the most difficult. To be honest, we don’t tend to have many lessons Cross Country, as this would be my most natural phase. However, we do take our horses to Vale View at the start of the season and work with Caroline Moore. She builds some great technical lines, which are brilliant for training the horses to look for the flags.

What do you think has been your biggest eventing career achievement?

Either, jumping a double clear round Badminton in (I think) 2016 to finish 12th or being selected for a GBR Nations Cup team to go to Great Meadows in the USA on a brilliant old horse, called Willows Tipster. Both were amazing experiences, and they make you hungry for more.

What is your ultimate eventing career big goal?

I think that like most event riders, I would love to win one of the big 5*’s. However, as I get older I am becoming more of a realist, and with the volume and quality of horses the very top riders have, you would need a superstar horse and a lot of  luck, to be in with a shout at the big ones.

With the sport being so competitive, you now have to focus on the getting the best out of the horses you have, and if it  comes together on the day to win one of the big ones then great!  With a young family now, I am also much more focussed on running a sustainable and profitable business, breeding and producing the young hoses.

How do you juggle working for Butler Sherborn and running a yard?  

Doing both is certainly a juggle! However, I have always been very open that it is extremely hard to run a truly viable business competing event horses. I therefore chose to have a job alongside the horses. There are a lot of riders out there, who if they genuinely analysed their books, would realise that it’s not really sustainable. I find having the two careers takes the financial pressure off the horses, but at the same time the horses help build my profile for the equestrian property work.

I have always said that the key to doing both is having the right people around us.  At home, we have got a great team, Sarah oversees the day to day running for the yard with our head girl, Chelsea Round. Mum does the endless office work, which includes entries and invoicing.  Planning is also important! We do a wide variety of work with our horses and the team at home do much of canter work, hacking and lunging. I tend to do the more intense flatwork and jumping work.

I am usually in the office for around 3 days a week, although when I am at home I am always available in email and phone. Our clients get used to me answering calls whilst sat on a horse!

If I am in the office, I tend to get up at around 5.45am, and if we have got a competition coming up, I try to get two ridden, before I leave for work at around 7.30 – 8.00am. I then get home at around 6.30 pm and ride another 1 or 2.  The four horse days, when I am also in the office, are quite full on!

You were commentating at Badminton this year – is this something new that you have done this season? Tell us a little bit about why you enjoy the media side of eventing?

I have worked for Lloyd Bell Productions, who run the Radio at Badminton and Burghley, a few times in the past. I think I have done 3 Badmintons and 2 Burghley’s. I only tend to do it if I have not got a ride at the event.  I usually do the rider interviews after each phase. I know a lot of the riders well, which I find helpful. Emotions can be quite raw straight after you get off, especially after the Cross Country, and I am hopefully getting better at knowing when, and more importantly when not to prolong the interview, depending on how well it has gone.

How do you juggle with both you and your wife both being event riders and having young children?

Its certainly adds another level of complexity to a day’s eventing. When we had our first daughter Millie, Sarah was still riding at 5* level and she had a lot of horses in to ride and Millie was very used to be handed over to grandparents or pushed around in a pram by our owners. As Millie has got older, and we have added our other daughter, Poppy, to the family, Sarah has made the decision to do much less competition riding to allow her more time with the girls. This has been great for me personally, as I have taken on some of Sarah’s horses and I have noticed an improvement in my horses, having someone of Sarah’s calibre schooling them when I am away competing.

Both Millie and Poppy love coming to events and there is a really good group of riders of a similar age with young children. It’s a great environment and they will have lots of fun growing up together.  

How long have you and Sarah been married and how did you meet?

Sarah and have been married since 2017. We were first introduced by mutual friends when we were 14 and went out for a few years, we were both Pony Club eventing at the same time, albeit different branches. We then got back together in 2012, not long after Sarah moved to our yard in Warwickshire with 6 horses and the rest as they say is history!

You and Sarah are now also breeders of eventers – tell us a little about some of the foals that you have bred, which stallions you have used and your future plans for the foals that you have bred.

We have always bred horses at home, and my mum and stepfather used to stand National Hunt Stallions. About 8 years ago, we focussed entirely on breeding sport horses. We have a group of around 6 mares made up of either proven competition horses or thoroughbred mares, who have shown some ability, move well and finished their careers sound. We have found it easier to have mares with enough blood which allows us to use quality jumping stallions. It is much harder to find the right stallions with a very high blood percentage to use on heavier mares.

Our aim is to have 4 or 5 quality, modern type young horses to produce and sell each year. We try to produce our young horses in the way that we would want, if we were going to be taking them on up through the grades. It’s often tempting to over produce young horses, which I don’t think is beneficial form them in the long term.  It’s brilliant to see the horses we have produced being taken up through the grades by top riders.  

If you require any advice regarding Equestrian Property, for sale, to let, valuations or other matters, do get in touch

Ben Way ben@butlersherborn.co.uk  07879 408873   01451 830731