Finnish harness racing needs a boost to keep itself viable. Declining audience numbers in competitions have lead to a need to act and try to gather new enthusiasts. Harness racing is in a second favorite watched sport after ice hockey but still new people is more than wanted to follow that sport. Harness racing schools for adults would give a good way to get to know more about harness racing and trotters. As a result of new followers it would bring more money to harness racing and horse business in Finland. The purpose of the thesis is to research how interesting people see harness racing schools in Finland. The comissioner of the thesis is Suomen Hippos ry, the Finnish trotting and breeding association.

There have been harness racing schools in Sweden since 1994. The schools offer courses with ponies and horses for children, youth and adults. Suomen Hippos ry. supervises six pony harness racing schools. There children and youth can learn how to drive and take care of ponies. There are no harness racing schools for adults in Finland.

The aim of the research part was to find out if there is interest and demand for harness racing courses for adults in Finland. The study was made by poll and it got 213 answers. The results show that there is interest for harness racing courses. Backgrounds of the answerers were different, some of the answerers had experience of horses already and some hadn’t any experience. Most of the answerers were women. The largest age group was middle-aged and most of the answers came from Uusimaa region. Lastly, a harness racing course activity might be an untapped opportunity for Finnish harness racing.