The British Racing School has started running a new course under the Racing Ahead scheme which provides bite-sized training to the racing industry in Newmarket.

The Work Riding Course has proved extremely popular with both trainers and employees and has been developed to train stable staff who currently ride the horses in everything except their work. Trainer Luca Cumani said "It is a great way to improve the riding skills of the competent rider who lacks the experience of race riding, I have found the course a great success".

Work Riding Course

The 2 day course is run after morning stables and is finished in time for staff to return for evening stables. Taught by one of the British Racing Schools jockey coaches, trainees are filmed on day one and then their performance is analysed using the state of the art software Dartfish. Tuition on improving body position and riding technique is given and their improvement is then reviewed on day two. Trainees are also taught how to assess horses in order to be able to give relevant feedback to trainers. Stepanka Vranova who attended the course said, "The work riding course was brilliant. It was really helpful to see myself on video and to see my mistakes and then be given the opportunity to correct them the following day. I have learnt a lot of new tactics which will help me to ride work in the future."

Duncan Gregory, Operations Director at the British Racing School said ""We, at the British Racing School, are ever conscious of the need to provide training that the industry wants - to be responsive to its need. Work ride courses are the most recent example of this".