Before the exam series got properly under way, we took a group of A-Level students horse riding to see if this might be something we should offer as an enrichment for September 2019.
A local riding school gave us a big discount as they understood the demographic of our college and how horse riding isn’t something that the students can readily access, for both financial and cultural reasons. Once we had completed the necessary risk assessments, and everyone was booted up in borrowed wellies and yard boots, we headed off to the countryside in the mini bus.
The afternoon was really well organised by the riding school so that the students could experience both riding and grooming horses, or they could just enjoy watching their friends riding. The one thing that couldn’t be organised though was the weather, and predictably, as it was the beginning of May and this is the UK, the rain was torrential. But that didn’t deter our students who all had a fabulous time, they loved both riding and grooming and found it really relaxing. They felt that it was like a bucket list achievement, and was something they would never have had the chance to do otherwise, so it is definitely on our list of enrichment activities for next term.
It’s not only the students that are benefiting from a bit of equine therapy, as some of the staff have decided to join in as well. During the staff wellbeing day, a group of us with varying levels of fitness and experience, went off for a morning riding lesson at a local centre and are hoping to make this a regular event.
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