RoR members: we heard you – and here’s what we’re doing
In our latest blog, our Director of Fundraising, Marketing and Communications explains how we are acting upon your feedback.
At RoR, our members are at the heart of everything we do. We want to make sure that you feel valued, heard, and part of a thriving community that champions former racehorses.
Recently, many of you shared your thoughts through our social posts about competition membership and wider aspects of RoR. We appreciate your feedback, and it’s helped shape some of the changes we’re making to better support our members.
Your insights have given us plenty to think about, and we’re already working on changes that reflect what matters most to you. Here’s what’s coming next:
Welfare and funding
More transparency on welfare and funding
You told us you wanted more visibility on how we support welfare cases, where funding goes, and the impact of your membership fees.
✔ We’re working closely with our partner retraining centres to showcase more of the horses that come through our safety net programmes. Last year, 66 horses benefited from our welfare support, costing, on average, £7,500 a year per horse to provide the appropriate care and veterinary treatment. While some cases remain sensitive, we’re prioritising sharing more updates with you.
✔ From next month, we’ll be providing quarterly funding updates to stakeholders and sharing these directly with our members.
Competitions
More opportunities for more horses
Many of you asked us to consider widening eligibility for classes and increasing opportunities for foreign-raced horses.
✔ This is under review by our team, and we’ll be updating members as soon as we have more details.
Exploring discounts for multiple horses
We recognise that some of you have multiple horses you would like to compete and would benefit from discounted membership packages.
✔ While this isn’t currently possible through our existing website setup, we’re actively raising funds for a full website and database redevelopment. This will be an area we look at as part of that process.
Recognition
Recognising all competitors
Many of you shared that you’d love to see more recognition for competitors beyond just winners – and we couldn’t agree more! We’re introducing:
✔ Competition engagement – We’ll showcase results from our league and points series with dedicated social media posts to acknowledge participation.
✔ Rosettes – We recognise that rewarding more participants can help encourage engagement. While we haven’t budgeted for additional rosettes this year, knowing that fifth and sixth place rosettes are important to you, we will review this for 2026. Any changes will be dependent on RoR’s financial position and our commitment to responsibly allocating funds to our core welfare initiatives.
Celebrating every RoR horse – not just the famous ones
We know that some horses are chosen for parades and ambassador roles due to their public recognition and strong course associations. However, we understand that every RoR horse has a story worth telling.
✔ Monthly member takeovers – We’ll be sharing member stories, photos, and experiences each month via Instagram and Facebook. Look out for more information on this shortly.
✔ Partnership of the month – Each month, our regional development officers will select a partnership of the month to be highlighted on our regional Facebook pages.
✔ Moving forward, we’ll be doing more to showcase all members and their horses, whether they were stars on the track or simply stars in your heart.
Thank you
Your feedback is shaping the future of RoR, and we’re excited to bring these changes to life. This is just the beginning, and we’ll continue listening to you to ensure RoR remains a supportive and engaging community.
Thank you for being part of RoR – we can’t wait to see what we achieve together!