Our People

No organisation exists without people and nothing can be achieved without their efforts, here at Bransby Horses we are incredibly lucky to have a dedicated team of staff and volunteers helping us to achieve our objectives.

Our trustees are volunteers who give up their time and use their skills and experience to support the charity and help us to achieve our objectives.

Trustees are the people who lead the charity forwards and ensure every decision made is in the best interests of the animals. They have overall control of Bransby Horses and are responsible for making sure the charity is achieving what it was set up to do.

Carole Fisher – Trustee

Carole became a Trustee in 2010, became Chairman in 2013 and after 10 years, stepped down in 2021. The entire staff thank Carole for her time and guidance over the past decade. Carole remained a Trustee before returning to the Chairman position in March 2024.

Carole is married with two sons, is interested in community and charity work – raising money for the Lincs. and Notts. Air Ambulance – and runs an equestrian business. Carole also farms in partnership with her husband, son and daughter in law, which in 2006 won the Crown Estates first ‘Rural Business Award’. She attended Harper Adams University Brackenhurst NTU and is a qualified BHSII(SM).

In 1992 she created a non-profit organisation, Toll Ride, to give local riders safe, off-road riding. This is still running successfully giving up to 70 riders’ trouble free riding. Although retired from riding and dressage writing and fence judging at BE events including Burghley, she remains actively interested in all things equestrian. She and her husband also enjoy skiing, cycling and travel.

Carole is committed to helping Bransby Horses deliver its’ strategic plan to progress and handle the challenges ahead.

Heather Elston – Trustee

Heather was appointed as a Trustee in March 2016 and was Head of Department of Animal and Equine Sciences at Brackenhurst, Nottingham Trent University, where she was responsible for the courses and facilities. She has research interests in equine nutrition and feeding, equine housing and grazing systems and also measuring activity patterns in horses. She graduated from Nottingham University and is a qualified BHSII(SM).

Heather spends most of her free time with her horses and competes at grassroots level British Eventing BE90/100 and British Dressage up to medium level and represented the local Riding Club, East Midlands Dressage Group, at eventing and dressage. She currently competes her own coloured mare, Smartie Pants, and has had many local BE wins including Shelford Manor, Buckminster House, Frickley Park and Eland Lodge. Their highlight was going clear cross country at the Badminton Grassroots Championship 2015.

Any spare time Heather and her husband have is spent touring the countryside in their classic car, an MGB or cruising on the waterways.

Susan Dolan – Trustee

“I have a lifelong love of animals in general but horses in particular and am excited to be involved with such a caring and worthwhile organisation as Bransby Horses.

“I was brought up in Scotland, where I studied medicine at Glasgow University and have been working as a GP in N Nottingham for the last nine years. Prior to that I held various hospital posts and, as well as my clinical work, I have been Medical Advisor to a Charity involved in supporting families who have a child with a rare degenerative genetic condition. I have also sat on an Ethics Committee for consideration of IVF cases. In the practice, my roles include Safeguarding and managing Staff issues.

“I have two grown up daughters and enjoy riding in my spare time. I am particularly interested in the Health and Welfare side at Bransby Horses and hope that my experience in this area will be of value to the Charity in my role as a Trustee.”

Rosemary Gillespie – Vice Chair

Originally a nurse, Rosemary worked in California and the UK, specialising in spinal injuries and later general surgery, including as a ward sister and nurse teacher. She moved into academia as senior lecturer in health policy and medical sociology at the University of Portsmouth, completing her PhD in 2000. She led the Kings Fund: Patient Involvement Project, and joined the NHS Modernisation Agency: National Clinical Governance Support Team in 2002.

Rosemary moved to the voluntary sector in 2006 and held a number of senior leadership roles, including: deputy CEO at Breast Cancer Care; CEO of The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation; CEO of Terrence Higgins Trust and Interim Director General at The International Planned Parenthood Federation.

A lifelong animal lover, Rosemary was a trustee of The Donkey Sanctuary from 2012 to 2021. Retired from full time work, Rosemary is a Magistrate and lives with her husband on their farm in the Peak District, with their cat, two horses (one of whom is rehomed from Bransby Horses) and a small flock of sheep.

Michael Pickles – Chair

Michael was appointed as a Trustee in August 2019 and Vice Chairman in May 2021. He is a recently retired Clydesdale Yorkshire Bank Manager, having worked in banking for 37 years. He has a wealth of knowledge in the finance sector and from looking after a number of commercial businesses in the Lincolnshire area. He became aware of Bransby through his time with Clydesdale Yorkshire Bank where he was the charity’s manager for 6 years.

He relocated his family to the Lincoln area, originally coming from West Yorkshire. He is a keen sportsman playing golf at nearby Lincoln Golf Club. His interest in horse welfare stems from his daughter who has her own horse.

Jim Robinson – Trustee & Treasurer

Jim is Lincolnshire born and has lived in the county all his life. Jim and his wife have two children and three grandchildren. He has been employed in senior financial positions in both the public and private sector for most of his career but is now semi-retired and has the time to make a commitment to a trustee role at Bransby Horses.

Jim’s interest in equines has developed from helping with his wife and daughter’s horses. They have both ridden since the age of three and Jim’s assistance ranges from paddock management, erecting fencing, baling straw and hay on the family farm, cleaning out the stables, unloading deliveries and much more. His granddaughters are now beginning to show an interest in horses so it seems that the passion will carry on for a third generation.

Away from the horses and family Jim’s other interests include gardening, property renovation, cricket, rugby, golf, and taking long walks in the countryside with his Springer Spaniel Boris.

Jim has visited Bransby Horses over many years with his children and now his grandchildren and feels very honored to have been appointed to a trustee role at the charity, an organisation which makes a real difference to the lives of vulnerable equines.