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Posted on June 12th 2023
Riding A Dream Experience At Newmarket
A group of Year 9 and 10 students had the opportunity to go to The British Riding school in Newmarket in February to experience how to look after and ride horses.
"We were introduced to a five-day course, as a part of the Riding a Dream Academy, which consisted of learning how to ride and groom horses, participate in fitness sessions and go on trips to races and training grounds," said Hiermeila, Year 10. Throughout the five days I have gained friendships, new knowledge and a genuine passion for horse riding."
Sumayyah, Year 10, reports on the trip...
On Monday, we went to the Huntingdon races and got to meet Charlie Todd, a successful jockey who told us about what life as a jockey entails and gave us some tips to improve our racing and confidence.
On Tuesday, we visited the National Stud, a horse breeding farm where we learnt all about horse health and how successful racehorses live. We also had a fitness session and learnt that being a jockey requires a lot of stamina and strength.
On Wednesday, we tried simulator horse machines to improve our technique, and were given feedback. On Thursday, we met Queen Camila, and she discussed her passion for horse-riding and how happy she was that people from different backgrounds were being given the opportunity to try it.
On Friday, we visited the Newmarket Gallops, an example of different jobs in the equestrian field. There, jockeys ride up to five horses a day across 30 miles of hills, after they have graduated from the British Racing School.
Every morning, we had morning stables before breakfast, where we mucked out horses' stables by cleaning up their stables, bringing them new hay and water, giving them a brush down and cleaning their poo.
We had a similar routine in the afternoon called evening stables, and this included taking the horses out of their stables and giving it a deeper clean. Every afternoon we rode for two hours and were given expert advice and help from the lead instructor.
We also got to meet Khadijah Mellah, who made history as the first British hijab-wearing jockey to win a competitive British horse race in 2019. She gave us advice and helped us with our technique, and it was an amazing experience which I am very grateful for.
