Imogen is 23. Along with having family in Ireland who have a history with horses and racing, she has been lucky enough to grow up riding at home in the Kent countryside. Aside from her love of horses she also has an interest in wildlife and storytelling. While carrying out her degree in Television Production, she particularly enjoyed crafting the narrative of her graduate project, ‘Behind the Reins’, which explored the benefits that ponies bring to neurodivergent children and their unique and special partnership. This experience, along with her interest in horses, solidified her motivation to apply for the Racing Media Academy and she is so glad she did! She is really looking forward to her placement with Equine Productions to learn more about their process of creating such beautiful and fascinating documentaries, as well as immersing herself in the world of racing and meeting the other trainees during the training week at the British Racing School in Newmarket.
The Racing Media Academy was an experience like no other.
It all begins with the training week in Newmarket. From arrival at The British Racing School, we were completely immersed in the horse racing industry. We gained an incredible insight into both horse racing and the media and were lucky enough to learn from some incredibly talented people in the industry. Participating in a full day masterclass from Lydia Hislop and Lee Mottershead, listening to talks on presenting from Rishi Persad and Jill Douglas, and visiting James Ferguson’s yard and Dalham Hall Stud were just some of the opportunities that the course offered us.
The week culminated in the challenge of the Mock Raceday. Having enhanced our knowledge and skills throughout the week, we each took on our assigned roles and worked together alongside RaceTech to successfully produce our Mock Raceday. This was an invaluable experience that really reflects how brilliant the week’s training is.
The day after finishing the course I began my placement with Equine Productions in Chepstow. With my interests in storytelling and production, the placement was perfect. Not only are the EP team extremely talented at what they do, but they ensured to involve me in as many aspects of their work as possible. This gave me experience across various aspects of pre and postproduction and I even had the exciting opportunity to accompany the team on a shoot.
I am very grateful to have been a part of the Racing Media Academy, and I appreciate the time taken by everyone involved in the curation and delivery of the programme. The experience filled me with a renewed passion for media and horse racing and I greatly encourage anyone who is interested to apply, you never know where it could lead you…
