Galloping ahead

Jeremy Michaels gives private coaching to aspiring equestrians in Beijing. [Photos by Kuang Linhua / China Daily]

Among the best-qualified equestrian trainers in Europe, Jeremy Michaels is on a mission to improve horse club standards across China. Zhao Yanrong finds out more.

On a snowy windswept Friday night, horse enthusiasts crowd into a room at an equestrian center in the northeastern suburbs of Beijing.

The reason they have braved the weather is Jeremy Michaels, one of just 50 people across Europe to have gained a British Horse Society Fellowship, the highest teaching and riding qualification that BHS can offer.

"When I came here, people were so hungry for knowledge, which made me enjoy being with them very much," he says.

Originally from Gloucester in England, Michaels gained the British Horse Society Fellowship in 1987. Since the early 1990s, he has worked for top equestrian education institutions, including Hartpury College in Gloucestershire and the BHS, where they train the best riders and administer an examination system for trainers and riders in the UK.

In China, he was teaching more basic skills, such as how to mount a horse properly, how to get off and how to hold the reins.

Michaels may seem overqualified to teach beginners but he believes basic education is essential for the rapidly growing equestrian sports scene in China.

His association with China began in 2003 when he worked for Hartpury College as director of its equine department. The Chinese Equestrian Association contacted the college seeking help to develop systems that would govern riding qualifications, horse welfare and riding centers.

Hartpury recommended Michaels as the man to help, based on his previous experience as deputy chief executive of the British Horse Society. Since then, he has traveled to China two or three times a year to teach in Beijing and Shanghai, for around two weeks at a time.

To develop an equestrian system suitable for China, Michaels visited numerous riding schools across the country.

The development of a Chinese riding examination system was eventually suspended by the association, but Michaels' visits have continued and won him many fans among the riding fraternity.

Compared to a decade ago, the facilities at Chinese equestrian clubs today are vastly improved. But there is still work to be done, Michaels says.

Five years ago he witnessed rats in the feeding room, nails sticking out of walls and dangerous electric wires at one club.

"It's not like those people hate horses or want to abuse them," he says. "It's purely that they don't know better. Basic knowledge is so important but there is a big shortage of it in China."

Those negative experiences have driven him to concentrate on the basics in China.

"Training people is like training horses," he says. "For a young horse, it should start with basic rides. After months and years of basic training, it can start jumping the bigger fences, and then the horse is confident and relaxed, so it will be happy to jump and not feel threatened or worried."