BSJA Area 44 Junior Academy

•  Ali Hawksworth has joined the Area 44 Committee as Juniors' Co-ordinator. Her main project is to develop an Area 44 Junior Academy to run alongside the junior membership development activity. It is hoped to bring together competitive Juniors and develop their skills with instruction from Accredited Coaches. This approach is aimed at focusing the Area on Juniors, and retaining them, whilst also recruiting new members through proposed work with the Pony Clubs. The Academy approach is very much geared to ongoing development rather than one-off training sessions.

•  Corinne Bracken, BSJA Accredited Coach, comments "So often in training people want 'the quick fix' route to help them at the show they are going to at the weekend. We have started the Junior Academy not only to improve the kids riding and make training fun for them but to educate them in all aspects of looking after their future competition horses and ponies. The system that we are going to adopt will be progressive, with a great emphasis put on correct riding, not just getting round a course on a wing and a prayer! I am totally committed to our younger riders as they are the future medal winners for the country. Now is the time to educate them and give them the knowledge to win."

•  Members of the Junior Academy are given a Log Book, which allows them to keep a record of their training and achievements. The Log Book contains:
- PDP (Personal Development Plan)
- Rider log
- Pony log
- Pony care log
- Training log
- Competition log

•  Local Rider Magazine will follow the Academy and its members for a year and will do a regular feature on our coaching sessions and how our Juniors are doing.

If you would like to support the BSJA Area 44 Junior Academy in any way,
please contact Ali Hawksworth.