Recently, the only equestrian school in Hervey Bay closed down. This event left many people, including myself, without any contact with horses. Although some may have decided to move on from horse riding, many others and I have been searching for ways and means to continue with this wonderful sport. I have chosen to continue riding at a holiday camp, but that is restricted to school holidays, hence the name holiday camp. This choice is quite a costly one for not only do I have to pay for the camp itself, there is also the cost of petrol, which is very high due to the long drive there and back, and the soaring prices of petrol. Although, if I was able to continue riding at a local equestrian school, I would be able to lower these costs drastically.
After the local equestrian school closed down, the horses and ponies they used there, were left to spend the rest of their days in a paddock, without any love. The local pony club tried to fix that problem, by allowing people to ride those horses and ponies during pony club. Although this solution gives the horses and ponies, some excerise, once a week, this is very strenuous on their bodies. Equestrian school horses and ponies are built to be ridden many times a week and having them rest in a paddock for six days then sending them out, over a grueling course of jumps, can be potentially dangerous, as it can cause joint problems and muscle injuries. Some of these injuries cripple the horse or pony for life. As you can see, these poor horses and ponies are now in a potentially dangerous situation and this situation needs instant attention.
The reason the equestrian school closed down earlier this year is that they had a lack of funding and lack of instructor's and I think the local government needs to fix this problem. If the local governments aim is to make the Fraser Coast reigon a better place to live, then they need to attend to this problem. Although horse riding is a small sport in this reigon, Hervey Bay would be a better place to live if it had at least one riding school. The area of the old equestrian school is now, in fact, empty during the week and it would be a perfect place to open up a new equestrian school, as it has two sand arenas, one large arena and a large show jumping paddock. The gorgeous forest out the back would be a brilliant place to hold trail rides. As this area used to be an equestrian school, I do not see why it cannot be a school again. I believe that this solution is a very practical one and it should be highly considered by the local government.