Last night I attended the launch of a friend of mine’s new venture – the Riding Club London and I can’t believe a) what a good idea it is and b) that no one has done anything like this before.

London has a wealth of activities and events to get involved with but until now, our capital hasn’t offered that many opportunities and social events for experienced horse riders. Until now. Rosie Ruck Keene and Ashley Parasram have set up a private member’s club which provides access to quality horses for intermediate to advanced riders living in London. You can get involved in loads of different kinds of lessons from show jumping in St John’s Wood to learning chukkas at premier Polo Clubs.

What is also quite special is the agreement they have with the Household Calvary to use their Irish black cavalry horses for lessons in Hyde Park which has never been allowed before and is exclusive to Riding Club members.

Tim Hadaway (Equestrian Manager on the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) was there last night and made a speech about how thrilled he was that this had been set up, saying: “With the 2012 Games approaching, we are very keen to see participation and accessibility increasing across sport. The Riding Club of London is taking great steps to help towards this by bringing together riders from all over the capital with original ideas and events as well as first class instruction and training.”

The club also takes members on polo and dressage lessons just outside London in Windsor and on Sundays they take two hour hacks around the Windsor Great Park followed by a pub lunch. For the more adventurous there are even European trips being organised; so far there have been beach gallops in the Camargue, France and Andalucian dressage and sherry-fuelled flamenco in Spain.

Sounds expensive right? Amazingly it’s not. Membership is £195 a year which works out as just over £16 a month and Rosie told me that with regards to lessons: “The pricing is £35 a lesson and £45 for the hacks. We put great effort into keeping the riding low cost so that our members can enjoy getting back in the saddle as much as possible.”

Now if only I hadn’t been put off by that nasty little incident with a Shetland pony when I was 5 years old, I’d be signing up in a jiffy!

EM