STUDENTS with their sights set on a career in the horse industry now have a first class, purpose built equestrian centre in Yorkshire.

The £700,000 rural centre at Askham Bryan College, near York, will give the college the opportunity to upgrade its courses to include a foundation degree course specialising in equitation, equine business management, or equine rehabilitation.

The stabling for 20 horses has been designed with their natural herd instincts in mind. There are open side bars instead of completely solid walls, enabling them to see each other while having their own space and privacy.

It has an Olympic-size indoor school, 60 metres by 30 metres with a specially constructed floor of rubber and sand and the benefit of floodlighting . It will also include a spectator area with tiered seating.

The outdoor school is almost as large, with a rubber surface, and in due course it will have banking for spectators. A full set of BSJA show jumps are planned and the adjoining fields have been re-sown for grazing and the planned cross country course. A new bridleway is also being constructed around the perimeter.

The college has 15 horses, of which the college owns five with the remainder either owned by students and staff on working livery or on loan.

Fiona McManus, 22, from Stockton , who comes from a Scottish farming background, stables her thoroughbred Wellington at the college, as does 18-year-old Kendra Kerr from Northallerton, who rides her own ex-racehorse, Dylan, and has competed for years at the Yafforth equestrian centre.

Both are in the second year of the national diploma in horse management, which includes business organisation and management skills. Students need experience of riding and working with horses, as well as four GCSEs at Grade C above, or equivalents, to get on to the course.

Laura Gilmour from Redcar and Gemma Holgate from Catterick are their classmates and all four are keen to go back to college in September for the new degree course, attracted by the horse rehabilitation work, which includes post injury care.

Miss Gilmour, a member of the Tadcaster and Wetherby YFC, is also considering doing a top-up honours degree. "My uncle is a horse race strainer in Staffordshire and he persuaded my mum to start me riding out when I was about three-years old," she said. "I would like to go abroad to work eventually."

Miss Holgate, whose father is in the Forces, started riding when she was 4 and used to race ponies in the Shetland Grand National, which raises money for charity.

The prospect of eventually having a business of their own interested all the students.

In future, the centre plans to run its own competitions while its modern premises are also available for hire to local riding clubs and pony clubs.