Watt is Equestrian?
HWU Equestrian Club is dedicated to providing opportunities for all levels of riders, from complete beginners who may have never even sat on a horse before to more advanced riders looking to compete.
We offer weekly riding lessons with friendly, qualified instructors for beginners and intermediate riders who are not looking to compete. Some of these lessons will be held in the riding arena where you will work more on the basics and technical side of riding and some will involve going out and about and seeing some of the local area on horseback.
Competitions
For those more competitive and advanced riders we have two teams who represent the University and compete in the BUCS leagues. These competitions involve a novice dressage test and a short round of showjumps. Each team has around three competitions in the BUCS league every year, a team consists of only four riders which are picked during team tryouts during September. A typical competition consists of a dressage test with a horse that you pick from random, you get a short warm up to get to know your horse before starting your test, a member from each other team will ride the same horse as you and you will be scored in comparison to each other.
The showjumping is style jumping so is judged on penalties for knockdowns and refusals as well as your approach, take off and landing from each jump.
Socials
We also organise a few social group rides each semester, which recently has involved beach rides and even some of our members going along to try polo for the first time! These are open to alumni members who we always enjoy catching up with.
As a club we love nothing more than meeting up for meals and nights out amongst other things such as movie nights and the annual sports ball which is always a massive hit with all our old and new members. We often host themed socials which end with us in Shanghai night clubs on a Wednesday night. However, after a long day of riding sometimes a sober social is what we all need.
Volunteering
HWU Equestrian Club is also extremely proud of the relationship we have built with the local RDA (Riding for the disabled Association) located in Ravelrig. We have lots of volunteers which go along weekly to help out wherever needed, this can involve mucking out , grooming horses and filling haynets. We welcome anyone interested in this volunteering opportunity, it can be an amazing way to spend your Sunday mornings.
Social Media
We love to keep everyone updated on what is going on in our club, to see what we have been upto give us a follow on our Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok! Feel free to get in touch if you have any questions!
You can find us on social media by searching for HeriotWattEquestrianClub