In an equestrian centre, every booking commits a horse as much as a rider, and half the work happens far from the arena. BetterSport brings lesson schedules, packages, payments and messages to families together in a single place.
Lessons to build level by level, a string of horses to spare, three pricing formulas living side by side and parents to keep informed.
Every slot carries its grade, its minimum age, its capacity and its instructor. Riders only see the lessons that suit them, and you keep control over how the groups are made up.
Each record gathers contact details, riding grade, licence and lessons attended. By linking horses to lessons, you can see at a glance what the week has asked of each one.
Annual package, ten-lesson card, monthly livery: three ways to pay that sit happily side by side. Payment is made online at sign-up, through Stripe.
A cancellation frees a place and the next rider is notified without anyone picking up the phone. Confirmations and lesson reminders go out on their own, the day before.
An equestrian centre does not close on Sundays. Care, feed and turnout carry on long after the lessons stop. Time spent in the office is time taken from the yard, and that is exactly the time a tool should give back.
Registrations come in at night, holiday course enquiries during the school breaks, owners' questions at any hour. With a diary open to bookings around the clock and automatic emails, information keeps moving even when you are down at the stables.
Every paid booking leaves a clear line: the rider, the date, the service, the amount. When a family asks for a receipt, or a works council asks for a certificate, the answer is no longer buried in a ring binder.
BetterSport does not keep your accounts and does not replace your accountant. Electronic invoicing falls under general obligations that apply to businesses, and it is something to prepare with them. What the platform brings comes earlier in the chain: clean records, named and dated.
A riding club does not fill up like a gym. Before accepting a booking, you need to know which horse will carry which rider, whether that horse has already worked that morning, and whether the group's level still holds together. That constraint appears in no table of available places, and it is the first thing a tool has to respect.
The rest of the admin, though, looks like that of any sports business: taking payment for packages, checking a licence, warning of a cancellation, finding a payment from several months back. Well-set-up software absorbs that invisible share.
The schedule is built slot by slot: rider level required, minimum age, number of places, instructor. Horses are attached to it just as riders are, so one glance at the week is enough to see what has been asked of each of them. Care, grooming and rest count as much as the ridden hours, and equine welfare has become an explicit expectation of the riders and families who entrust you with their children.
A rider's record holds what is needed: contact details, current rider level, licence, plan taken out. Attendance is there too, lesson after lesson. A horse's history, for its part, tells the story of its real timetable, and on a card of ten group lessons the remaining balance is shown without you working it out. For owners with horses at livery, the logic is the same: a monthly contract, contacts, and a record of what has been paid.
The annual package is paid in one go or in instalments, the card of ten is used up lesson by lesson, livery is paid every month. Online payment tied to the booking saves the queue at the office on a Wednesday afternoon. Holiday courses work differently again: several days, limited places, payment at sign-up.
Every payment stays attached to a person and to an identified service. Invoicing then feeds on that material: dated, named lines, readable by someone who was not there on the day.
Let us be straight about the scope. BetterSport is not an accounting tool, and the move to electronic invoicing comes under general obligations that apply to businesses: that is prepared with your accountant. The software works upstream, so that your invoices are issued on sound foundations, whether they come out on paper or electronically.
BetterSport is built for coaches and sports businesses: a bespoke website, search-optimised for your activity, a booking system with limited places, a waiting list and automatic reminders, then an iOS and Android mobile app under your own brand. If your site is still to be built, building a riding club website plugs into the same schedule, with no double entry.
Getting started follows a simple order: the schedule first, then the plans, and emails and campaigns last. Nothing obliges you to switch everything on the first day, or to decide on your own. You can start your free 14-day trial, with no card details.
Yes: a lesson is given its horses just as it is given its riders, and each horse's record shows what it has worked during the week.
Yes, as a monthly plan that renews on its own, kept separate from lesson packages.
Yes, with limited places over several days, paid at sign-up, and a waiting list once they are full.
Yes, an iOS and Android mobile app in your own branding, where everyone books, cancels and checks their account.
No. The schedule works on its own, and it can also be slotted into an existing site by means of a booking widget.
Yes. Each instructor finds their own slots and groups, while management keeps the overall view of the week.
The place that frees up goes back to the waiting list and the next rider gets an automatic email. Reminders the day before, for their part, cut down on no-shows.
No, a browser is enough to book and pay. The mobile app is an extra convenience, never a requirement.
