BHS Stage 1 Dorset

‘Anyone wanna buy a Riding School’ I think I need a change of career. I took Jen and Paris down to Dorset on Thursday to take their BHS Stage 1 exam on Friday and we stayed over night in a B&B. So now I’m thinking this is the way to go, £60 a night for a double room with a bit of breakfat thrown in, in the morning, How hard can it be they don’t  have to arrange lessons, organise pony club, train students, spend hours doing NVQ files, registers and other college pointless paperwork, organise and run competitions,  print schedules, Sell useless horses, buy useless horses, ride useless horses, employ staff, get rid of staff, Feed and keep 33 horses and numerous other thankless tasks. As far as I can see, change the sheets, run the hoover round and a bog brush round the toilet cook the breakfast wash up and thats it ready for the next guests. Think I’ll be looking for a B&B. Jen and Paris took their exam at the RAC Saddle Club, Bovington, Dorset. Its a Military owned riding school which serves the public, It was very well run with 90 horses on the premises. The Military don’t actually ride at the riding school but train tank drivers there. Jen and Paris found it rather alarming to be riding in their Stage 1 and have tanks driving past and because they have a tank museum there Jen and Paris found themselves riding to the music from Phantom of the Opera during their exam. Not being able to observe any of the exam I don’t know how it went needless to say they both felt some parts went well and some parts didn’t go so well, we will have to wait a week for the results. I spent the morning in Weymouth which as a seaside resort was like a step back in time. The buildings, beach huts and railings on the beach front were very Victorian but the atmosphere reminded me of a miners trip to Barry island in the sixties – Candy floss,  red white and blue beach huts, deckchairs, Punch and Judy, Open top Buses, and minature beach promenade train. Because the weather was hot the beach was packed by 10.30 with families marking out their 6ft square of sand and although quaint and intereesting for the day the thought of a weeks holiday there would be horrific. I managed a quick stop at Osmington to take a picture of the White Horse etched into the mountain and a short visit to Lulworth Castle before picking the girls up at 1pm. On the way back to the exam centre I found myself driving behind a tank with an L plate on which made me wonder what you do in a Tank driving test i.e roundabouts, traffic lights, 3 point turn, emergency stop or do you just have to prove you can drive over what ever is in front of you whilst firing a few rounds of ammunition. We left the exam centre at 1.15pm and arrived home at 7.15pm. 6 hours of being stuck in queues of holiday traffic I was not happy. That night we were invited to a birthday party, well 3 cans of lager and I fell asleep.

Posted on Sunday, May 31st, 2009 at 3:03 am You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.