Friday 24 February 2012
Wednesday 15th February saw the launch of The Yorkshire Junior Academy sponsored by Askham Bryan College. Hosted by the main sponsor, the academy is a successful amalgamation of three British Showjumping areas; North Yorkshire (15), East Yorkshire (15A) and South & West Yorkshire (16). With the joint approach to the academy proving to be a great success as the booking list was filled with thirty young riders descending upon Askham Bryan to take part in the maiden academy.
As riders started to arrive on the cold but sunny morning it was evident that all were enthused by the day that lay ahead. Young riders from the age of 7 through to 18 were briefed on the outline of the day which saw them rotating between a series of workshops and practical sessions each focussing on a different aspect of being a model rider.
Each rider was presented with their own personal academy portfolio and then it was time to get started. The first session of the day kicked off with the under 10’s focussing on some flat work exercises in the outdoor school before heading into the indoor school to do some jumping with British Showjumping accredited coach Fred Bergendorff.
Meanwhile group two started to fill in their portfolios with details of their ponies and horses as well as recording their experiences from throughout the day while being given the opportunity to discuss their achievements and aims for the year before rotating to take part in a practical session.
Sharron Harrington from Saracen Horse Feeds then arrived to give a talk on feeding to the older riders. She bought a number of samples with her and they discussed the feeding of forage, what they feed their horses/ ponies and the different types of feeds and supplements.
After lunch more group riding and filling in their portfolios, before some went off to do stable management and plating while the younger group had their chat with Sharron about feeding their ponies. They each discussed what their ponies were fed and they then did a quiz on the different types of food to finish off the talk.
During the course of the day each group had done a quiz on questions from the rule book and the winners of this quiz were Team Reem consisting of Aimee Gascoigne, Louise Cornforth and Alice Kitching who scored an impressive score of twenty nine out of thirty.
The day was wrapped up having made sure the stables were skipped out, yard swept, the school poo picked and once this was all done they each received a goodie bag from Askham Bryan College and Saracen Horse Feeds.
Thanks to:
Askham Bryan College for letting us use the great facilities. Penny Jibson the British Eventing and British Showjumping Event Coordinator for Askham Bryan for helping things run smoothly on the day. Fred, Hannah and Nicola, the academy coaches, for running some great sessions and everyone I spoke to came out saying they had learnt something and were going to take away points to work on before their next session; and finally all the riders, their parents and their horses / ponies.
.jpg "Roy Robinson April 1932 - November 2023")
