3rd August 2007
Last week many children from London 2012 host boroughs had their first ever experience of horse riding as a variety of different sports came to Greenwich Park.
Greenwich Council hosted a free sporting festival for 11 - 19 year olds to mark 5 years to the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games. The festival was also held to kick start a summer programme of sport in the area where it is hoped that young people in Greenwich will be able to access a wider range of sporting activities than ever before. The day allowed youngsters to have a go at a number of different sports including football, fencing, cycling, javelin throwing, rowing, tennis, volleyball, horse riding and much more.
The horse riding section was very popular attracting long queues of children, many of whom had never sat on a pony before. Mudchute equestrian centre kindly supplied three very well behaved and beautifully turned out ponies so that as many children as possible had the opportunity to ride. Other equestrian activities included labelling parts of the horse on a life size model and a selection of quizzes. The youngsters were rewarded with equestrian themed goodies to take away, with the aim of encouraging their involvement with horses and ponies to continue. The educational activities were met with nearly as much excitement as the ponies themselves with all the participants showing a keen willingness to learn more about horses and ponies.
This kind of event is hopefully the first of a variety of similar activities which will form a part of the sporting legacy the London 2012 Olympic Games will leave for Britain’s youth. Each and every sport at the event was filled with children all afternoon and hopefully this will trigger many of these youngsters into long term participation. This event taking place in Greenwich Park is also of particular importance to equestrian sport as it will be the home of the equestrian events at the 2012 Games.
Special thanks go to Greenwich Council for organising the overall event but also to the British Horse Society London Committee, Mudchute Equestrian Centre and Frogpool Manor tack Shop who all contributed to making the equestrian part of the event a success.
