Dressage yard and livery aims for gold with the right support

Based in a small private yard with their daughter Jessica, an international dressage rider, Richard and Lynn Gale wanted to upscale and run a commercial equestrian enterprise.

With 27 stables, an indoor school, an outdoor arena, barns, tack rooms, around 47 acres of paddocks, a five-bedroom house and a staff flat, Froxfield Stud near Petersfield in Hampshire fitted the bill.

Richard Gale is a corporate Finance Director and his wife Lynn previously worked in residential mortgages. However, they both knew they would need specialist help to get a mortgage for a commercial enterprise of this nature.

Expert help saved time and focused business plan on key areas

“We looked for expert help from the outset,” said Richard. “Our time is limited, and we didn’t want to waste time looking for finance ourselves when the chances were that we’d get nowhere.”

Richard approached Rob Lister of R&BS. He was confident that Rob’s specialist knowledge of the commercial mortgage market and his banking contacts would help them achieve a good result.

Rob applied his banking knowledge to Richard and Lynn’s business plan and refocused it onto areas which the lenders would be keen to see and prepared longer-term financial projections. This was the key in reaching a positive loan approval quickly.

Rob put the lending proposal to a shortlist of five banks and followed this up with conversations with them all. Richard, Lynn and Rob finally met two of the banks face-to-face, and accepted a mortgage offering the most suitable terms and a competitive interest rate.

Making it happen and making it easy

“Having met Rob, he gave me the confidence that we’d achieve a good result. He understood where we wanted to take our business and knew the rural finance market better than anybody. Rob made the deal and the purchase of Froxfield Stud happen in a way that was very simple and easy for us,” said Richard.

Froxfield Stud’s future

The Stud is now firmly established with 25 horses in full, part-time or competition or schooling livery. It has an established programme of clinics with international dressage and show-jumping trainers. Jessica is training her own horses and providing the schooling for the sales, competition and schooling liveries.

For more information on Froxfield Stud and Jessica Gale please visit:

Froxfield Stud on Facebook

Jessica Gale's website