Holly Blade

Hello!

Welcome to my last blog I can't believe how quickly these past 9 weeks have gone! It has been a week of tension and excitement as everyone found out where they will be placed after the course has ended. Luckily for me I am going back to the Point to Point yard at home and can't wait to begin. You never know in a couple of year's time I could be riding a winner. It's going to be really sad leaving the BRS especially as our group has been very close as a team and many strong friendships have been formed.

We had a practice run of our last ride in the week my choice is the fabtastic Misty Man. We have yet to take our final exam, everyone is making the most of any spare minute to revise - the mock went well so hopefully everyone will be fine. We also have the daunting prospect of final reports, fingers crossed they all go well. The new filly Golddigger has proved a very popular ride, she is extremely genuine for a 3 year old and I'm sure will become a favourite of many students in the future.

I wish Cara the best of luck as the new Senior Trainee; I know she will do an awesome job. A massive thank you goes to Matt for being brilliant to work with and an ace Head Lad, and of course all my friends I have made here especially for the birthday surprise, you made my day! Thank you to all the staff for a fantastic experience especially Mr Sparkes for his time and patience. You never know I might even be back in the future.

Holly x

Matt Kington

Not long now. We have only 3 days left until we finish our course here at the BRS and have our final ride up the 7 furlong gallop.

The last week here has been very exciting for us all, but nervous at the same time because we are all looking forward to moving on and starting our new jobs (for some returning to old yards) but of course we will all miss being at the BRS, being around everyone we have met and working with them all down the yard too.

Earlier on in the week we took a trip one lunch time down to the Rowley Mile racecourse in Newmarket where we got shown what a day's racing would be like and what we would do, as staff; for example, declarations, leading up etc which was a good experience for us all especially those who hadn't been before but the majority of us had.

We also had our last ride videos to go on the final CD and also had some photos taken. The last thing we have to come is our end of course exam which includes everything we have covered in our NVQ lectures throughout. I'm sure we will all do really well and will pass with flying colours!

Over the next few days we will be spending our last weekend here and will be going up on the Heath one final time. Everyone has chosen our last rides now and some of them include Golddigger (who I have chosen), LordBerniebouffant, Tanager, High Ratio, Misty Man and many more. We look forward to our parents coming down to watch our last ride to see how we have progressed form when they dropped us off on our first day here to when they pick us up on completion of our course and I'm sure they will all be very proud of us.

I wish all our beginners success for their final 5 weeks here and the next group they will have staying with them too. I would also like to wish everyone on Course 219 every success in their jobs, I'm sure you will all have a fab time.

Good luck, Matt

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