Would Exeter or Southampton be better for riding?

Harriettee

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I have been given offers from Exeter and Southampton unis and to my mums horror I am a lot more interested in the riding at the unis than the geography degree!! The polo teams train together. And from what I've heard, to be in the riding club you have to pay something like £20/wk to have one lesson which is more than I'm paying to share a horse at the moment... so does anyone know what the riding is like generally at Southampton and Exeter and whether it would be easy to find a horse to share etc. Where do you think the riding would be best etc?
 
No idea about southampton, but exeter would be good, devons full of horsey people, almost every other person has a horse or some kind of association with them, there are some great EC, and RC's, many events, and theres always people offering horses for loan. Don't really know what the ridings like, but the EC's I've seen have all been in nice areas :)
 
Exeter is far far more rural - out on to Dartmoor in 10 mins. Loads of riding available around here. Southampton is far busier, so I should imagine outriding would be far more limited.
 
Southampton is a REALLY horsey area. Loads of comp centres and the downs and the New Forest are on you door step.

I went to Soton Uni and there are several Teams. I didn't join any as took my horse with me and was busy enough!!
 
A friend was at Exeter and got lots of riding in. She didnt have her own horse but helped other people. She tried out for RC teams but she wasnt good enough as hadnt had a horse before other than on loan and many of the people there were from very wealthy backgrounds where horses were par for the course.

In Southampton you are not far from the New Forest so should be possibilities there. But you would need a car.
 
I work at Southampton uni and they have a good riding club. http://www.soton.ac.uk/~riding/ Not sure on costs but when I was at uni lessons and hacking were heavily subsidised by the students union so the prices were low. There are plenty of stables in Southampton, but you would need transport. Look on NFED for shares or loans.
 
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