A love of the land
Written on the 27th September 2023.
The Juniper Co. has worked with a number of land-based organisations, including The Duchy of Cornwall, The Sandringham Estate, The Bolesworth Estate, NFSCo and The Pony Club. During the pandemic, Nicki Kavanagh generously ran a series of webinars for rural businesses offering advice on business continuity and managing estates through change and she is currently exploring how life has progressed for these businesses over the last three years. Nicki’s connections with the rural community are not by chance, they have emerged from a deep-rooted love of the British countryside. Here she gives an insight into the story behind her relationship with land-based businesses.
“I suppose it all started with my love of equestrian sport and being involved through my family,” says Nicki. “My daughter joined The Pony Club and then, after progressing through The Pony Club levels, started competing with British Eventing.
In 2010, a voluntary role came up where I had the opportunity to become a board director at the British Equestrian Federation. It was a non-executive director role responsible for marketing and communications and it was originally a three-year term. I think I thought I was going to change the world in three years! Having said that, I worked as part of an amazing marketing team in Claire Shand and Pippa Wade and supported them in developing a strategy for the 2012 Olympics. The federation supports all the Olympic equestrian sports, of which there are four – eventing, dressage, jumping, and para-dressage. We helped build an overarching strategy for each of those sports for 2012 and the messaging around them, including the construct of the ‘dancing horses’ for dressage.
Greenwich was an incredible venue for the Games. Andrew Finding, the chief executive at the time, had this vision that he wanted equestrian sports to be in the thick of the London Olympics. My favourite equestrian sport is eventing, and to be at Greenwich and see riders on the cross country course quite literally jumping over the moon (one of the fences was created to look like a crescent moon) at the top of Greenwich Park, looking down at Canary Wharf in the distance, was just one of the most amazing moments of my life.
The Games gave hundreds and thousands of people who perhaps not had any access to equestrian sport before, the opportunity to see horses in close proximity, galloping around a park and jumping over rustic fences, some of which (like the moon) were incredibly significant in their design. I felt very privileged to be part of that. We increased the Federation’s following from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands. At one point our biggest following on social media was 400,000 unique followers. That might not sound a huge amount now but at the time, back in 2012, that was a big number. I'm very proud of what the team achieved.
I loved the role so much that I stayed on to support the team for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, which was a whole different ball game with plenty of its own challenges. My time with the Federation gave me a wonderful insight into both elite sport and sport at the grassroots level. I knew I wanted to continue to be involved – not so much with the sport, but more to create a difference for businesses that focus on a rural pursuit.
One of the reasons why I love eventing so much is because it gives you a unique view of some incredible estates. When you think about Badminton, Burghley, Blenheim, Blair (we like our Bs in equestrian sport!) and others; to have the opportunity to visit these incredible landed estates and see how the eventing course designers leverage those landscapes is phenomenal. It's very impressive and really engaging.
I had a love of the countryside inculcated in me as a child. I learned to be respectful of the countryside but also to enjoy all the natural beauty that it provides and the wellbeing that comes from being in it. The other day I put down a blanket in the little orchard at the back of my house and just lay there looking up through the Buddleia at the blue sky above me. Then the birds and the bees and the butterflies started to come as I lay there quietly, and I thought, ‘my goodness, what a privilege to see all this wildlife in its natural environment’. If you stop long enough, you see so much. I’ve been very lucky to be able to combine my love of equestrian sport and my love of nature, but it's not just about that for me. It's about the rural landscape and being able to really understand more about what takes place on an estate."
Keep an eye out for the next instalment of this three part series, where we will explore Nicki's relationship with some of Britain's most prestigious landed estates.