Aintree host Park Palace Ponies as local children graduate at the home of the Grand National

Aintree Racecourse, the home of the Randox Health Grand National hosted some special guests to launch a new partnership for their community programme.

Inner-city riding school, Park Palace Ponies based in Toxteth held their graduation ceremony for a course completed by children aged 7-10 years old at the racecourse. They were joined by another special guest, 2012 Grand National winner, Neptune Collonges.

Making horses and riding accessible

Park Palace Ponies is an inner-city starter riding school opened in April 2017 in the Dingle, Toxteth. It aims to inspire a new generation of horse riders and to make horse riding more accessible to those in inner-city areas. They offer riding lessons for children aged 7- 10 who have never ridden before.

Aintree and Park Palace Ponies have joined forces to offer a host of horseracing and Grand National activities for these children.

After receiving their graduation certificate from Aintree’s Managing Director, John Baker, over 120 children and parents were treated to a behind the scenes tour by Aintree historian, Jane Clarke and spent time with Neptune in Aintree’s world-famous parade ring.

 “It was an honour to host children from Liverpool for their graduation as well as volunteers from Park Palace Ponies who do an inspiring job,” said John Baker.

“It was great to kick start this partnership and fantastic to see the Grand National legend, Neptune Collonges back at Aintree too. We’re committed to giving back to our local community and look forward to plenty more Grand National-related activity for children in Liverpool in 2020.”

Life skills as well as horsemanship

Glenda Richards, whose daughter went through the course at Park Palace said: “Thank you for organising such a fantastic day. My daughter completed the course last year and it has had a truly positive impact. She absolutely loved every session, not only learning to ride but learning the breeds and points of the pony, grooming and mucking out. But more importantly it’s the increased confidence it has given her which has been invaluable. I cannot recommend the course highly enough.”

Find out more about Park Palace Ponies here.

Find out more about Aintree Community Programme here.