Bedmax boss wins lifetime achievement award for work in equestrian industry

Tim Smalley, managing director of Belford-based Bedmax, was presented with the award at the annual BETA Awards dinner held at Chesford Grange Hotel in Warwickshire.

Judges said: “Tim has single-handedly redefined the business of equine bedding, and his contribution is widely recognised and acknowledged throughout the equine industry both here in the UK and Internationally.”

Tim was one of the first to recognise the widespread problem of respiratory disease in stabled horses and the critical importance of eliminating airborne dust from the two most prevalent sources: forage and bedding.

He can be described as a horse bedding pioneer, determined to develop a high quality made alternative to the often catastrophically dusty traditional straw bedding and the early forms of by-product shavings most widely used at the time.

Bedmax shavings were launched from a production plant that Tim himself helped design and build 23 years ago on his brother’s farm.

Since then, Bedmax and Littlemax shavings have set the industry standard for high quality bedding, and the yellow Bedmax bag is recognised and trusted by professionals and leisure riders alike throughout the UK and in centres of equestrian excellence worldwide.

Tim has helped to promote a far wider and deeper awareness of the critical threat that airborne dust poses to equine respiratory health, and the role good bedding can play in mitigating or preventing it.

Bedmax has continually aimed to spread the message throughout the equestrian industry about the difference that a dust extracted bedding can make to the wellbeing of all stabled horses.

Tim still invests in the development and delivery of education programmes, at all levels from Pony Club camps to further education establishments, British Racing colleges, and even to the veterinary teams at the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Although he has always claimed that making equine bedding ‘isn’t rocket science’, Tim’s purpose-made shavings have won the respect of veterinary experts around the world and are used at many of Britain’s biggest equestrian events, by leading racing trainers and racecourses, by competitors, veterinary hospitals, and thousands of owners.