Local people making their corner of rural Britain unique
This week
Saturday 11th October Repeated Thursday 16th October
Elinor Goodman is in Berkshire, exploring the country around the town of Lambourn - the so-called "Valley of the Racehorse"
Open Country is up with the lark this week, as Elinor Goodman visits the gallops in Lambourn. The area is known as the 'Valley of the Racehorse', and is home to two and a half thousand of the animals. But, as Elinor finds out, it's become increasingly difficult to find people who are dedicated enough and light enough to ride the horses during training, and a now a third of these 'work riders' in British racing yards are recruited from outside the EU. She talks to flat racing trainer William Muir about the rates of pay staff are offered, and meets Indian and Slovakians working in Lambourn's yards. Elinor visits the man who looks after the special springy turf on the Jockey Club's Mansdown Estate, talks to the farriers shoeing the horses and finds some ancient links to the horse in the local countryside. On a trip to the gallops, jump racing trainer Oliver Sherwood explains that preparing a racehorse is now a mixture of science and the dark art of getting inside its mind…
