The Sparsholt Equine Centre welcomed an exciting range of equine experts and industry professionals for their ‘Equine Demo Week’. With learners now settled into their courses, the Demo Week provided an excellent opportunity to build industry links and engage with equine professionals. We hope the learners enjoyed their week and are feeling excited that they have started the academic year with an inspirational bang! 

The Equine Team reflected on the week saying “We are extremely grateful for all the industry professionals and experts who gave up their time to come and be a part of the Equine Demo Week for our learners. It was great to see them showcasing their specialist fields, passing on their knowledge, and engaging positively with our learners. Everyone did a brilliant job!” 

The industry experts who attended throughout the week included: 

Daniel May from D&H Showjumping – Based in Liss, Hampshire and specialising in producing young showjumping horses. Dan came along to visit our Equine learners for a showjumping demo on an experienced horse to show best practise when jumping a course of fences and the striding that is required. He then worked a second, less experienced, horse through a grid of fences to work on gymnastic exercises.  

Mark Barton Farriers – Mark is a master farrier who regularly shoes the horses at Sparsholt’s Equine Centre. He came to speak to our learners about the importance of correct shoeing in relation to hoof anatomy, as well as demonstrating how a farrier trims and shoes a horse. 

Stable Close Equine Practice – Alex Sargeant, co-founder of Stable Close Equine Practice, performed a demonstration to our Equine learners on equine dentistry and how a horse’s dental health should be assessed and managed.  

Fiona Wilson and Andrea Kennedy – Fiona Wilson, British Dressage List 1 Judge, gave an educational talk to our Equine learners focussing on the importance and implementation of the Scales of Training that are used during riding. Fiona, with the help of Andrea and her horse, then demonstrated this in practise! Andrea regularly competes her horse up to Medium.  

South Downs Bloodhounds – Sparsholt staff member, Tom Hasted, along with hunt staff, Amanda Pole and others demonstrated how horses are prepared and presented. The hunt staff were keen to teach our students about “Hunting the Clean Boot” with their bloodhounds. Our learners loved meeting the hounds! 

Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) – Roly Rickord, from RoR, visited our Equine students to speak with them about retraining racehorses and the wonderful jobs that they can go on to do after they have finished their racing careers. 

Julia Knight-Jones – Julia has competed at Intermediate British Eventing, Foxhunter British Show Jumping, and Medium British Dressage. She demonstrated the training methods and rideability required for Arena Cross-Country, using Sparsholt’s own arena cross-country fences. 

British Horse Society (BHS) – Hannah Miller, from the BHS, came to help our learners explore the various BHS career pathways that are on offer to them. She spoke with them about the importance of the BHS qualifications and the benefits that come with being an active member of the BHS. 

Jackie Gallagher and Michelle Pack – Both Jackie and Michelle are very accomplished freelance coaches that are BHS qualified and insured. They spoke to our learners about their experiences of being self-employed in the equine industry as well as demonstrating the standards required of a coach and rider for the BHS stage exams from Stage 1 to Stage 3. 

Find out more about our Equine Studies courses at Sparsholt College or Equine Degree Courses at University Centre Sparsholt at our next Open Day (Saturday 5 October 2024), book in advance via the links.