00:00Christophe Soumyon is still riding at the top of his game but these days he's equally as
00:07passionate about encouraging the young jockeys of the future and he's created a path for them
00:11to follow at his Soumyon International Pony Academy where children as young as eight are
00:16taught the ins and outs of race riding. We took a trip to his farm in Deauville this week to hear
00:20from the multiple champion jockey and see some of the children in action at school.
00:24Something that for me it became a real passion you know I couldn't believe even two years ago
00:33three four years ago that I will achieve something like that. Today for me it looks normal it's a part
00:39of my daily daily walk but yeah for me it's important to make them discover the the way
00:45you enter in racing because for sure racing tables those are most of the time really closed very
00:53difficult for anybody around the sports to come and try to discover our game but that's important
01:01to know in which group we're gonna put every kid and just try to find a weakness and and make the
01:07weakness become something that they're gonna build and and get confidence on it. Like I explain to
01:14them every day we all get stressed we all get scared so we need to try to control that.
01:19First it's make them discover what we are doing with a different type of ponies what they used to
01:33ride in other pony clubs. For me the most important to have the confidence and the trust so they can
01:41listen to me and and go on the track because like you can see this morning there was two or three new
01:46newcomers kids that never rode racing ponies before they can be sometimes a bit shy a bit
01:52scared some of them can even cry but we need to explain to them that everything's gonna be
01:58right if they're just follow the the right instruction so that's why we try to explain to them to let go you
02:12know just release let the pony go and when they're gonna arrive at the last corner they're gonna slow
02:17down and stop that's why after that we go going to bring them over the fences we're gonna jump them
02:23I'm training differently now I'm riding two three four strings sometimes in the morning I stay on
02:29the ponies three four hours every day so I arrived to the race course I think I'm more horseman than
02:35what I was because I don't care who's the dad who's the mom from each pony for me it's one horse or one
02:43pony and I need to find the best way and the worst and try to combine to make the best pony as possible
02:51and now when I'm arriving at the races I'm trying to do the same thing I don't care if it's a big
02:57owner small owner big trainer I don't look the the origins I want to make sure I find straight
03:04away the the details and I think my eyes more sharp now because I can see things that I didn't looked
03:12before and now I'm right when I'm riding I'm really happy I'm fit I never thought I will be a good
03:19teacher but yeah today it looks like that's something that suits me and that makes me happy
03:24every day and proud so I will keep continuing as far as we can and make sure we we get the best ponies
03:31and the best riders coming around and sometimes we know some kids not gonna match for racing but
03:37if they had a great time that's the most important
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