BACK TO THE HORSE

Waipa Post, Volume 47, Issue 3371, 23 September 1933, Page 8

BACK TO THE HORSE

RIDING AS A PASTIME IN FASHION IN BRITAIN Horse riding has returned to fashion in Britain this year. It is estimated that there are 500 riding schools to teach the art to the thousands of people who want to learn. And probably £500,000 extra will be spent on the sport this year. Mr J. T. Davidson, secretary of the Jorrocks Club, an organisation which has been formed to develop the sport, said recently:—"The boom in riding is due mainly to the desire of business girls to enjoy themselves in a new way. There are possibly about 10,000 business girls who now go a-riding after office hours and during their holidays. In fact, the sport has become so popular that it is becoming quite a common sight to see a young couple going on a horse-hike, each riding a horse and leading another animal with a pack on its back, just like we see in pictures of the Wild West. "And another development coming to the fore as a result of the boom is polo on a popular scale. A school has already been started in London where polo is taught for 2/6 a chukker. (A chukker is a 10-minute period of polo.) This step will undoubtedly develop this sport, and the most aristocratic game might yet become almost as popular as hockey." The present boom in horse riding is due to its popularity with youns women and the comparative cheapness with which they can take it up. The new craze is most popular around London. But it is also growing more and more in the Midlands, in Yorkshire, and in Scotland.