BBC News School Report @ LCS

With the Cheltenham festival underway many people have placed their bets on which rider they think will win. A lot of people have flocked there to watch the races, even though the turn up seems amazing, horse riding seems to be losing popularity in households all over England. This begs the question, is horse riding going to fade out of existence in the near future, or is it going to become more popular in the years to come?

Horse riders say that they are the most pampered animal on the world even though they are the ones that are killing way too many horses every year.

Mr Woodhouse (a teacher at Littleover community school) said that he “doesn’t like horse riding as a sport because it is quite brutal how they sometimes have to kill some horses because they are behaving badly or if they are not fit enough for the sport. It was also very bad how they used to drug themselves so that they could lose weight fast to give themselves the upper hand.” He also said that “there is definitely an audience for the sport” but he doesn’t like it personally.

Harry (a student at Littleover community school) stated “I don’t watch horse racing at all but I think that it was way more popular about 10 years ago, but it seems to be losing popularity and it needs a miracle if it is going to carry on for much longer.”

Miss Walker (a teacher at Littleover community school) said that she thinks that it is a little bit boring and she is surprised at how popular the sport is considering how cruel it is on the horses. She also thinks that it is absolutely awful that the horses get killed by their jockeys and that it is not humane in any way.

I think that horse riding is earning enough money at the moment to carry on for maybe something like 20 years maybe even more but, I can see it almost being wiped off TV in about 15 years, so by 2040 I think that horse riding could be a thing of the past and maybe robot riding will be what people will watch at home with their children when they get home from work.