Founder
Will Bales
Founder of Saddl.
I'm Will. I grew up in Yorkshire surrounded by horses, learnt to ride on a Shetland pony with small man syndrome at Lacy's Cottage Riding School, and never really stopped.
Why Saddl
Finding somewhere to ride in the UK is harder than it should be, and yards that deserve to be found often aren't. Riders search through Google ads, Facebook groups, or a friend's recommendation. Yards rely on word of mouth and a website nobody updated. Restaurants and beauty solved this a decade ago. Equestrian got skipped.
Saddl is a directory first. The data has to exist before bookings can flow.
Why me
I've ridden most of what the sport has to offer: competitive showjumping, endurance, polo, trekking holidays, and a 10-day trans-Andes trek with gauchos. So I know how patchy the discovery side is from the rider's seat.
The day job is product leadership in financial services. Director, Digital Product & Experience Lead most recently at Coutts, with earlier roles at MS Amlin and Hiscox. The thread through all of it is intermediary-led platforms: if the people in the middle can't do their job easily, nothing else works. For Saddl that's the yard owner.
Personal
Now in Hertfordshire with two daughters I'd love to give the same start I had.
Contact
hello@saddl.co.uk. I read everything.