AN initiative to help young riders at a North Yorkshire school with their cross-country skills has been supported by Speedi-Beet.

Masham Micronized Feeds, makers of Speedi-Beet, the unique 'ready in 10 minutes' sugar beet feed for horses and ponies, has boosted the initiative by Queen Mary School, Baldersby Park, Topcliffe, North Yorkshire to build a cross-country riding course in its grounds by sponsoring four of the fences.

The school has been building its riding centre to national levels since 1993 and has relied heavily on sponsorships and donations to achieve its current level of facilities. Its latest development aims to improve young rider's jump-skills by adding a cross-country course featuring a series of 25 fences.

Masham Micronized Feeds is part of I'Ansons of Masham, one of the UK's leading manufacturers of animal feeds for the farming industry.

From left - Robert MacKenzie-Johnson, Headmaster of Queen Mary's School, Pam Ashworth director of the riding school and Will I'Anson.

Originally founded to offer basic riding skills to pupils of Queen Mary's School the riding school now houses 25 ponies providing over 90 pupils and many more local riders access to first class facilities and rider training.

Masham Micronized Feeds Sales Director Will I'Anson, said: "The Queen Mary School riding centre is an outstanding facility and helps to challenge and develop young riders from the school and surrounding area.

"I'Ansons has been part of the local community for more than 100 years and we are delighted to be able to support such an imaginative and worthwhile project."

Riding centre director, Pam Ashworth, said: "The children love trying their hand at new obstacles and that opportunity is only made possible by the sponsorship of company's such as I'Ansons.

"We are now almost half-way to our final target and are always looking for people to help us reach our goal."

Speedi-Beet was launched in 2000 after an extensive period of research and development. The feed has high nutritional qualities and can also help prevent and aid recovery from Laminitis.

It is unlike any other sugar beet product, in that it is ready to use in less than 10 minutes where conventional pulps take anything up to 24 hours to soak before use.

Speedi-Beet has proven extremely popular with horse and pony owners throughout the UK and has broken into the overseas market with exports across Europe, the Middle East and Australasia.

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