Quorn Hunt handicap flat race 27/04/2014

After only deciding to take part a week before hand, Ginny only went on to win the race! Here she tells us more about the reasoning behind her chosen charity and what it was like switching to jockey for the day.

The charity Ginny chose to rasise money for is Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance, as an event rider she knows only too well how crucial their services are in those moments when things dont go quite to plan.

Ginny's trusty steed to contest the race with her was Empyrean, a former eventer that went to Ginny to be sold. She evented at BE100 but after deciding she was not an amateur's horse but not going to make it to the top in eventing it was thought that point to point could be the way forward. Ginny was not expecting to win the race at all as the horse struggles to make the distances and starts of kean and normally tails off, but on this day she rose to the occasion.

Having only had one practice 2 days before the race and said she had felt terrified, and more nervous than when about to ride around a 3* cross country track, she did not let go of her neck strap the whole way around the track. Annabel Wheatley, point to point trainer, was telling her what to do every step of the way, and strictly no sitting back down hill as you would naturally do on the cross country course and feeling like you can't stop is a good thing!

Being the only amateur in the race made the win even more thrilling, Empyrean was kean and Ginny held her back around the first lap before realising in the last few furlongs of the 1mile 6 furlong race that the other jockeys were really going for it, and she managed to hold on to the lead and win by a length.

I think we will all agree what Ginny has done is truly inspiring to try something different to raise money for charity. If you would like to make a donation to support the Thames Valley and Chiltern Air Ambulance you can do so by going to Ginny's JustGiving page-

http://www.justgiving.com/Ginny-Howe-Eventing

You can keep giving and supporting the cause until July 2014!