Yard licensing & inspections

If your local authority licenses your yard, an inspection means proving what you already do — that the horses are cared for, the records are current, and the yard has procedures people actually follow. Horsepower is where that evidence already lives, and it can give your inspector their own read-only login to see it.

Give the inspector their own login

Instead of printing folders or reading records over someone's shoulder, add the inspecting officer as an Auditor — a role built for exactly this:

• Read-only, properly. Not a convention: the server rejects every write from an Auditor account, so they cannot change, add or delete anything on your yard even by accident.
• Only the horses in scope. Each horse carries a "Licensed / audited" tick and Auditors see only those, so a livery's private horse stays invisible unless you include it.
• Out of the yard's conversations. Auditors aren't placed in the yard or team message groups, so access doesn't hand over your staff's chat.
• Removed in one tap when the inspection is done.

What they can see once they're in

• Horse records — passport and microchip numbers, date of birth, height, colour, markings.
• Health history — vet, farrier, dentist and physio visits with dates, plus what's due next and when.
• Weights over time, so condition is a record rather than an opinion.
• Feed plans per horse, including supplements and special instructions.
• Fields and turnout, with rest periods per field.
• Written procedures — how-to guides are the yard's documented way of doing things, with photographs, rather than knowledge in one person's head.
• Signed paperwork — rider declarations, agreements and accident reports, timestamped against the exact wording agreed.
• Documents — insurance, risk assessments and certificates filed against the horse or person they belong to.

From a real inspection

When our own yard was inspected recently, the licensing officer told us the app made their job easier — they could see the horses in scope, the treatment history and the yard's written procedures without anyone digging through folders. The licence was approved. That's one inspection at one yard, and it isn't a promise about yours: your council sets its own requirements and reaches its own decision.

Before the inspection

Most of the work is knowing where you stand while there's still time to fix it. Because the records are live rather than assembled the week before, you can check at any point which treatments are overdue, which horses have gaps in their history, which forms are unsigned, and whether the procedures you rely on are actually written down.

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Check your own requirements

What needs licensing, and what an inspection covers, depends on where you are in the UK and on what your yard actually does — hiring out horses for riding is treated differently from keeping liveries, and the rules differ between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Horsepower helps you keep and present your records; it isn't legal or compliance advice and can't tell you what your council requires. Ask your local authority's licensing team.

Common questions

Does using Horsepower mean I'll pass an inspection?

No, and be wary of anything that claims otherwise. An inspection assesses your yard, not your software. What good records do is make it straightforward to show what you're already doing, and make gaps visible to you early enough to put right.

Can the inspector change anything?

No. The Auditor role is enforced server-side: any attempt to write is rejected outright. It's a genuinely read-only account, not a UI that hides the buttons.

Will an inspector see my liveries' private information?

Only what you include. Auditors see horses ticked "Licensed / audited" and nothing else, and they're kept out of the yard's message groups.

What does it cost to give an inspector access?

Nothing. An Auditor is an invited member, and members are free on every plan. Horsepower is free for yards with up to three horses, with paid plans above that.

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