Prototype Group Membership Terms
1. WHO WE ARE AND WHAT THESE TERMS COVER¶
When these terms say "we", "us", "our", "the College" or "Alvará", they mean Alvará – The College of Working Equitation Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales with company number 17384770, whose registered office is at Suite 41, 792 Wilmslow Road, Didsbury, Manchester, United Kingdom, M20 6UG.
When they say "you" or "your", they mean the person registering for and paying for a Prototype Group membership.
These terms apply to the two memberships offered through Prototype Groups:
- Mentored Membership, held by a Group Leader to whom the College offers it: at the price shown before payment, or at no charge for a Group Leader who is a Fellow of the College; and
- Guided Membership, held by every other Group Leader and by each member of a Group.
They apply together with our Terms of Service, which govern your use of our website, and our Privacy Policy. If anything in these terms conflicts with the Terms of Service, these terms apply to your membership.
You will be asked to accept these terms before you pay. Please read them carefully and keep a copy for your records.
2. HOW PROTOTYPE GROUPS WORK¶
Prototype Groups are offered by invitation only.
- Group Leaders are approved by the College and invited by email. A Leader registers, pays for their own membership, and then invites the members of their Group.
- Members are invited by their Group Leader and register and pay for their own membership. Each member's membership is a separate contract between that member and the College.
- A Group may have up to ten members in addition to its Leader. There is no minimum number of members: a Group runs whatever its size.
Prototype members follow the same curriculum and work towards the same College standard as every Alvará member. Articles are released one at a time and in order, and the College and its Fellows follow the Group's work more closely than in ordinary membership. The College decides the pace at which Articles are released.
What is included. Your membership includes access to the College's curriculum for your Group, the College's examinations, and the guidance described for your membership tier on our website at the time you register. Clinics, residencies, in-person sessions with the Fellows and any travel or accommodation are not included in the membership fee unless we tell you otherwise in writing, and may be offered separately at an additional charge.
3. YOUR ACCOUNT¶
When your payment is confirmed we create your College account, or add your membership to the account you already hold with us if you have one, and email you a link to set your password or sign in.
Before your first Article opens, we will give you access to the College's reading and study pages. Until then, your account gives you access to your Group's page and to your subscription and payment details.
Your membership is personal to you. You must not share your sign-in details or allow anyone else to use your account, and you may not transfer your membership to another person. You are responsible for keeping your password secure and for telling us promptly at [email protected] if you think someone else has used your account.
You must give us true, accurate and current details when you register, and keep them up to date.
4. WHO CAN JOIN¶
You must be at least 18 years old to register and pay for a membership. A rider aged 16 or 17 may be registered by a parent or guardian, who accepts these terms on their behalf and is responsible for payment.
5. PRICE AND PAYMENT¶
The price of each membership is shown before you pay, and at the date of these terms is €300 a year. Prices include any VAT or other sales tax that applies to your purchase, which is calculated from the billing address you give at checkout.
You pay the first year's fee in full when you register, even where your membership starts on a later date. Your membership start date is shown before you pay and is currently 7 December 2026.
Payments are processed securely by our payment provider, Stripe. Your card details are held by Stripe, not by us. A receipt or invoice for each payment is available in your account under My Subscription.
Prices are charged in euros. If your card or bank account is in another currency, your card issuer or bank may apply its own exchange rate and fees, which we do not control.
Places granted at no charge. The College may, at its discretion, grant a membership at no charge or at a reduced price. Where it does, these terms apply to that membership in the same way, except that no refund is due on any amount that was not paid.
6. AUTOMATIC RENEWAL¶
Your membership is for one year from your start date and renews automatically each year unless you cancel it. On each renewal we will charge the renewal fee to the payment method you used, or to any payment method you have since given us.
- The renewal fee will not change. As a thank-you to our Prototype members, your membership renews each year at the fee you paid for your first year, for as long as your membership continues.
- We will remind you by email before each renewal at least 7 days beforehand, with the date and the amount that will be charged and how to cancel.
- You can stop your membership renewing at any time by writing to us at [email protected] before the renewal date. Your membership then continues until the end of the year you have paid for and is not renewed.
- If you forget to cancel: if you write to us within 14 days of a renewal payment, we will cancel your membership and refund that renewal payment in full.
If a renewal payment fails, we will try again over the following days and let you know. If it cannot be collected, we may suspend your access until it is paid, and end your membership if it remains unpaid 30 days after the renewal date.
7. CANCELLATION AND REFUNDS¶
We want every member to join with complete confidence.
Before your start date. If you pay in advance of your intake or membership start date, you may cancel at any time before that date and receive a full refund.
After your start date. Your membership is covered by our 30-day money-back guarantee, beginning on your start date. If you decide within those 30 days that the programme is not right for you, let us know in writing at [email protected] and we will refund your membership fee in full.
Groups. Where members join as part of a Group, the guarantee applies to each member individually. A refund for one member does not affect the membership of the Group Leader or of the other members of the Group.
How refunds are paid. Refunds will be made to the original payment method within 14 days of your request. When a refund is made, your membership ends and your access to the College's member pages ends with it.
After the guarantee. Once 30 days from your start date have passed, the fee for the current year is not refundable, except as set out in sections 6, 8 and 10, or where the law requires it. You can still stop your membership renewing at any time.
Your statutory rights. This guarantee is in addition to, and does not affect, your statutory rights. As a consumer buying at a distance you have a legal right to cancel within 14 days of the day you register, without giving a reason; the terms above always give you at least that right and the full refund that goes with it.
8. CHANGES WE MAY MAKE¶
To the programme. Prototype Groups are a new way of delivering the College's curriculum, and we may make reasonable changes to the programme, its content, its schedule and the way it is delivered. If we make a change that significantly reduces what your membership includes, we will tell you, and you may cancel and receive a refund of the fees you have paid for the part of the year that has not yet passed.
To the price. We will not change the fee for your Prototype membership while it continues (see section 6).
To these terms. We may update these terms, for example to reflect changes in the law or in how we offer membership. We will tell you of any significant change before it affects you. Changes take effect from your next renewal unless the law requires otherwise.
9. YOUR GROUP AND YOUR INFORMATION¶
Your registration details are held privately by the College's Registrar's Office and used as described in our Privacy Policy.
- Your Group Leader sees your name, the email address and mobile number they invited you with, and whether you have accepted your place. They do not see the other details you give us when you register, or your payment details.
- Other members of your Group see your name once you have accepted your place, and the status of your place. You may hide your name from the other members at any time from your Group page; your Group Leader will still see it.
- If your membership ends, your Group Leader will see that you have left the Group. You no longer appear to the other members.
10. ENDING YOUR MEMBERSHIP¶
If you want to end it, see sections 6 and 7.
If the College ends it. We may suspend or end your membership by writing to you if you seriously or repeatedly break these terms or our Terms of Service, if a payment remains unpaid, or if your conduct towards the College, its Fellows, its staff or other members is abusive, threatening or otherwise unacceptable. If we end your membership for one of those reasons, no refund is due.
We may also end your membership for any other reason by giving you reasonable notice in writing. If we do, we will refund the fees you have paid for the part of the year that has not yet passed.
If your Group Leader leaves. If your Group Leader's membership ends, your own membership is not affected. The College's Registrar's Office will lead your Group in their place, and your Group page will show the College as your Group's Leader.
11. RIDING, HORSES AND SAFETY¶
The College's teaching is educational and is not a substitute for in-person instruction. Horses are unpredictable, and every activity involving them carries risk. You are responsible for deciding whether any exercise is suitable for you, for your horse and for your circumstances, for the welfare of your horse, and for having appropriate insurance for your riding and your horses. Section 11 of our Terms of Service applies to everything provided under your membership.
Where you send us video or other material of your riding for review, you confirm that you have the right to do so and that anyone else shown in it has agreed. We will use it to review your work and for no other purpose without your permission.
12. THE COLLEGE'S MATERIAL¶
Everything provided to you through your membership - the curriculum, its texts, figures, films, audio, examinations and manuals - belongs to the College or is used under licence, as set out in section 8 of our Terms of Service. Your membership gives you a personal, non-transferable licence to use it for your own study while your membership lasts. You may not copy, share, publish or sell it, or use it to train any machine-learning or artificial-intelligence system.
13. OUR LIABILITY TO YOU¶
Nothing in these terms excludes or limits our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for any other liability that cannot be excluded or limited by law, and nothing affects your statutory rights as a consumer.
Subject to that, we are responsible for loss or damage you suffer that is a foreseeable result of our breaking these terms or failing to use reasonable care and skill. We are not responsible for loss that is not foreseeable, for any business losses, or for loss caused by events outside our reasonable control. Our total liability to you in connection with your membership in any year is limited to the fees you have paid for that year.
Events outside our control. We are not responsible for any delay or failure caused by events outside our reasonable control. If such an event affects your membership for more than 60 days, you may cancel and receive a refund of the fees you have paid for the part of the year that has not yet passed.
14. COMPLAINTS¶
If you are unhappy with your membership or with anything we have done, please write to the Registrar's Office at [email protected]. We will acknowledge your complaint within 5 working days and aim to resolve it within 14 days.
15. GOVERNING LAW¶
These terms are governed by the laws of England and Wales, and the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction over any dispute. If you are a consumer living in another country, you may also bring proceedings in the courts of the country where you live, and you keep the protection of the mandatory consumer laws of that country.
16. GENERAL¶
These terms, together with the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between you and us about your membership. If any part of them is found to be unenforceable, the rest continues in effect. If we do not enforce any part of them straight away, we can still enforce it later. Nobody other than you and us has any right to enforce these terms. We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms to another organisation, and will tell you if we do; your rights under these terms will not be affected.
17. CONTACT¶
You can contact us about your membership at [email protected] or by post at Suite 41, 792 Wilmslow Road, Didsbury, Manchester, United Kingdom, M20 6UG. We may give you notice by email to the address you registered with, or through your account.
Version 1.3 - updated 13 October 2026. Mentored Membership is held by Group Leaders to whom the College offers it, at no charge for a Fellow of the College; every other place is Guided.