Privacy policy

1. Who is responsible for your data

The data controller is Evie Abbott-Wilcox, sole trader, trading as Stable to Stable, of Beulah Farm, Laundry Lane, Horam, East Sussex, TN21 9EB.

For anything to do with your personal data, email hello@stabletostable.co.uk.

2. What we collect

We collect only what the service actually needs:

• Account information — your name, email address and password (passwords are handled by our authentication provider and we never see them), or your Google account identity if you sign in with Google.
• Rider profile information — display name, broad location and travel radius, experience, confidence, disciplines, ambitions, budget, preferences, requirements and anything you write about yourself.
• Horse advert information — details of the horse, the arrangement offered, price, broad location, health, behaviour, management and care information, and what you are looking for in a rider or home.
• Photographs and videos you upload for a profile or advert.
• Private contact details you choose to give us, such as a contact email address, phone number or a more precise location. These are stored separately and are never shown publicly.
• Enquiries, invitations and connections — the messages you send, who they were sent to and their status.
• Wishlist and saved horses.
• Contact-sharing choices — whether you have chosen to share your email address or phone number within a particular connection.
• Reports and blocks — what you reported, about whom, and any detail you added.
• Technical information needed to run and secure the site, such as your session and basic server logs.

3. Why we use it, and our lawful basis

Running your account and keeping you signed in — necessary to perform our contract with you.

Publishing your rider profile or horse advert and showing it to other users — necessary to perform our contract with you; you choose what you publish.

Calculating match scores and compatibility between rider profiles and horse adverts — necessary to perform our contract with you, since matching is the core of the service.

Sending enquiries, invitations and connection notifications, including notification emails — necessary to perform our contract with you.

Sending account emails such as sign-up confirmation and password reset — necessary to perform our contract with you.

Reports, blocking, moderation, safety and fraud prevention — our legitimate interests in keeping users and horses safe and the platform trustworthy.

Keeping the service secure, diagnosing faults and preventing abuse — our legitimate interests in running the service reliably.

Complying with the law where we are required to — legal obligation.

4. The AI Matchmaker

When AI Matchmaker commentary is generated, relevant information from the rider profile and the horse advert is sent to an external AI service so that a short written insight about the match can be produced. Private contact details, precise locations and passwords are not sent.

This commentary is advisory only. It is not automated decision-making that produces a legal or similarly significant effect: it does not decide whether you can create an account, contact another user, buy, loan or share a horse. People always decide.

Our lawful basis is our legitimate interest in helping users understand why a horse and rider may or may not suit one another.

5. Who we share it with

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with advertisers.

Other users see only what your profile or advert publishes: your display name, broad area and the details you have entered. Full names, precise addresses, postcodes, email addresses and phone numbers are never shown, and are shared only when you deliberately choose to share them within a connection.

We use a small number of service providers who process data on our behalf under contract:

• Our hosting, database, file storage and authentication provider, which stores your account, profiles, adverts, uploaded media and messages.
• Google, if you choose to sign in with Google, which confirms your identity to us.
• Our email delivery service, which sends account and notification emails from our stabletostable.co.uk sending domain.
• An external AI provider, which generates AI Matchmaker commentary as described above.

6. Where your data is held

Our providers may process data outside the UK. Where that happens, appropriate safeguards such as UK-approved standard contractual clauses or an adequacy decision apply.

7. How long we keep it

We keep your account, profile and advert information for as long as your account is open and you continue to use the service.

If you ask us to delete your account, we remove your personal data unless we need to keep something specific — for example a record connected to a report, a dispute, a safety concern or a legal obligation. Anything retained for those reasons is kept only for as long as that purpose lasts.

Enquiries, invitations and connections are kept while they remain relevant to the people involved. Reports and moderation records are kept for as long as needed for safety and dispute purposes.

Deleted content may persist briefly in routine backups before being cleared.

8. Security

Access to data is restricted at database level so that users can only read the information they are entitled to see, private contact details are stored apart from public profile information, uploaded media is served through controlled links, and connections to the site are encrypted in transit.

No online service can be completely secure, so we cannot guarantee absolute security, but we take these measures seriously and review them as the service grows.

9. Cookies and similar storage

We use only strictly necessary storage: a session so you stay signed in, and short-lived browser storage that remembers, for example, a horse you tried to save before signing in. We do not currently use analytics, advertising or tracking cookies, which is why you do not see a cookie banner.

If that changes in future, we will update this policy and ask for your consent before setting any non-essential cookies.

10. Google Analytics

We use Google Analytics to understand how many people visit the site, which pages they use and how they found us, so we can improve the service. Google Analytics sets cookies and collects information such as pages viewed, approximate location derived from your IP address, and basic device and browser information. We do not use it for advertising or to identify you personally.

Analytics is consent-based. Nothing is loaded or collected until you choose "Accept analytics" on our cookie banner; if you choose "Reject analytics", no analytics cookies are set and no analytics data is collected. Our lawful basis is your consent.

You can change your mind at any time using the "Cookie settings" link in the footer of every page, which lets you accept or reject analytics again. You can also block or delete cookies in your browser.

Google acts as our processor for this data and may process it outside the UK under appropriate safeguards.

11. Your rights

Under UK GDPR you have the right to access your data, to have inaccurate data corrected, to have your data erased, to restrict or object to processing, and to data portability where it applies. Where we rely on legitimate interests you can object, and where we rely on consent you can withdraw it at any time.

You can edit or reset your rider profile and delete your horse adverts yourself at any time from My Stable.

To request deletion of your account and associated personal data, or to exercise any other right, email hello@stabletostable.co.uk. We will respond within one month.

12. Children

Stable to Stable is for adults. Accounts are restricted to users aged 18 or over, and the service is not intended for children. If we learn that an account belongs to someone under 18 we will close it.

13. Complaints

If you are unhappy with how we have handled your data, please tell us first at hello@stabletostable.co.uk so we can put it right. You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) at ico.org.uk, or by calling 0303 123 1113.

14. Changes to this policy

We will update this policy as the service develops. The date below shows when it last changed.