Meet Imran Atcha – The Urban Horse Hero

Winter 2022 Magazine – pg.10

Imran, 51, is coordinator at The Friendship Café and a riding instructor at St James City Farm, a registered charity that includes an urban riding school for local children who wouldn’t otherwise have access to horses.

“…the real success stories are the people who are adults now in a balanced personal situation.”


St James City Farm Success Story

How long have you been a member of IH?

About three years.

How did you first hear about Kelly and IH?

I can’t remember exactly, but it was about 12 or 13 years ago at Hartpury College. I had heard about ‘the horse whisperer’ and went with my own children to watch the demos and was most impressed.

What do you enjoy most about your IH Membership?

I like the practical advice and tips for daily handling. I like constantly learning, and nowadays, the more I learn, the more I realise how much I don’t know.

Has IH changed your life in any way?

Whenever things go wrong, I try and see what part I had to play in the problem. I will blame myself first before I blame the horse. There’s a lot of good accessible advice and tips through IH. Someone else will have worked through the same problem.

How did you first get involved with horses?

It’s a long story, but in summary, I wanted to ride since childhood but never had the chance apart from one donkey ride as a child. I had many frustrations with ad-hoc lessons and treks. Once, I told the instructor that I wanted to gallop. She told me that I would never gallop, so I was really upset. I bumped into an old friend who said that he had bought a field with a view to getting a pony for his daughter.

I rounded up family and friends and asked them to invest £500 each for a horse we could all ride. I made a link with the one person I knew who knew something about horses and bought a 15.3hh cob. Although I had been reading books about horses (this was before YouTube), I had no hands-on experience, and I really didn’t know what I was doing at all! But I started building up connections and learnt to ride all the paces and jump in the field.

After two years, I sold the cob and bought an ex-racer. All apart from one of the original investors had left by then. The ex-racer was well out of my league… But somehow we both stayed alive until he injured himself in a field a couple of years later. Ever since then, I have been riding other people’s horses. I also had ‘proper’ lessons with some great teachers, went through BHS exams and got a generous scholarship from them to gain my basic coaching qualification. Currently, I ride out weekly at a lovely stables run by former champion jockey Jason Maguire. So, I finally get to gallop like I always wanted!

Can you tell us more about The Friendship Café and St James City Farm?


The Friendship Café is now a registered charity, but it was a group of us (friends and family) that established it almost three decades ago, initially as a gym for Asian guys in a garage. It’s now a thriving community centre with
about 20 different groups and activities ranging from sports to sewing to food distribution.

St James City Farm was a separate entity started off by the council in the 90s, but they wanted to close it down due to funding cuts. Our charity took over it instead 12 years ago, and we established the riding school on it 8 years ago. The riding school was a development of a little project, initially taking kids to learn the basics of riding at other riding schools. I understood how difficult horse riding is to get into. Especially if you are from no horsey background whatsoever and from a visible minority ethnic background, and we wanted to open up this opportunity to children from the inner city. We now have a 40x20m arena in the heart of Gloucester’s inner-city. We teach children from the local community and schools and have links with big riding schools and Hartpury College.

How has IH influenced your teaching at St James?


We try and emphasise kindness to horses and explain that they have feelings. I let the students hold the bit and show how it is actually in the mouth and how little pressure is required. We do groundwork, use an Equicizer (mechanical horse), emphasise gentle landing on the back, and that the whip is an aid, not to punish.

I don’t want my students to make the mistakes that I made out of ignorance when I started. I was totally gung-ho – just jump on, kick on and yank the horse about. I’d walk straight up to the horse and throw the saddle on. No wonder I used to have catching problems!

Now I slow the process and am conscious of eye contact and body language. We go through horse signals such as ear positions and what they mean, get them to groom with nice and long strokes so that the horses drop their heads, etc. It builds up the students gradually and helps the less confident ones. Hopefully, they will have a much better foundation than I did.

Can you tell us a little bit about the ponies you have at St James?


At the moment, we have 6, of which three are rideable, one is driven, and the other two are minis. The biggest is 13.3hh. They are very clever in their own way, and some can open stable doors and untie knots! They are pretty “bombproof”, like police horses, and we have taken them into schools, and we ride and drive in the area, so that they don’t get bored going around the arena.

What have been your proudest personal achievements at St James?


I’m pleased to know that we’ve made a difference to any child or young person who may be in very, very straitened circumstances through the horses and other animals. This happens regularly, and most people will never know about it as it remains confidential. There are many children and families in situations that are really challenging, right on our doorstep, not in a far-off country somewhere, and it’s a privilege to be able to put a smile on that
face through these little ponies.

Can you tell us about some of the successes of your students?

Of two of the students who came here as children and I remember on lead reins, one, Alicia, is now an amateur jockey with Kim Bailey racing, and the other, Aamilah, is now going through the British Racing School having spent the summer with Grand National winner Jason Maguire. Another one works full-time at a large riding school. Some have gone on to Vet School or in other animal environments. Although these are success stories, the real success stories are the people who are adults now in a balanced personal situation. We have many who initially came as suicidal or very unstable to start with.

Can you share your memory of meeting Monty at Hartpury?


I thought that he was very humble. He said he had been working with thousands of horses from the age of 3, and he was about 75 at the time, and we (as in humans) only understand very little about them. I think he said
we understand them about 1%. I had been riding one cob for about a year
and thought that I knew it all, so it gave me a bit of perspective! I remember him explaining what he was doing and how it was no “special powers”; it was something that anyone could achieve. He was a fantastic rider, too. It was the first time I had ever seen western-style riding with rein back and spinning on the spot. I heard a few negative comments when I mentioned it to other horsey people at the time, but I thought to myself – if he’s good enough for the Queen’s horses, he’s good enough for me!

What are your future goals for St James Farm and/or other projects?

It’s logistically and practically challenging keeping horses in the city and making progress for riders, so eventually, we hope to expand to a secondary larger site so that we can progress our riders, have a larger variety of horses and for our riders to get to see more of the horse world. A round pen, 24-hour turnout, gallops and hacking area would be the dream.

Is there anything else you would like us to mention?

Whilst I’m the lead person with the riding school, nothing has been achieved by myself alone. I’m blessed by God to have met lots of really nice people from horsey and non-horsey backgrounds and have the support of my wife, family, friends and very good staff and volunteers, as well as financial and in-kind support from many businesses and organisations over the years.

Imran Atcha – The Urban Horse Hero

Winter 2022 Magazine – pg.10

Imran, 51, is coordinator at The Friendship Café and a riding instructor at St James City Farm, a registered charity that includes an urban riding school for local children who wouldn’t otherwise have access to horses.

“…the real success stories are the people who are adults now in a balanced personal situation.”


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