there is somewhat of a sweet spot to take off. A rider can only do so much to guide the horse. In the end it’s up to the horse.
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I guess ‘Pony Club’ is a hold-over from days gone by when kids were started on actual ponies.
There are differences between ‘horse’ and ‘pony’ but negligible at this point.
Just know that ponies are not baby horses. 
I have a book called ‘Basic Horse Care’ in the bookshelf. Something down that line.
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Generally speaking, a race is a group of horses together racing against each other. The first one to cross the finish line is the winner.
Jumpers in a horse show are racing separately against the clock. So the fastest one with no faults is the winner, but they are each competing one at a time.
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In both hunters and jumpers the jumps are set up with an ideal sized horse in mind. In hunters the horse is meant to cover the course fairly evenly while in jumpers only knocking a pole is a fault.
You will.see many styles in jumpers. If the jumps start getting to high for a particular horse they will make more obvious effort.
By and large there’s an ideal distance to take off and land smoothly. A horse that gets to the bottom of the jump and heaves itself over has got the wrong distance. But some tricky jumper courses can make this harder. Also some combination jumps where horse has to jump 2 or 3 fences with just a stride on between can look more frenetic.
Before s jumper round the rider typically walks the course and mentally maps the course and counts the feet between jumps. You would also need to know your horse, his average stride length and whether you can make him go longer or shorter strides. I watched a lesson years ago where they had the horse cantering the same distance in 3,.4, and 5 strides and the rider exclaiming “she’s crazy adjustable!” I in delight.
The problem is if the horse is in between and the stride takes him too close or two fat away for an ideal jump.
It’s up to the rider to know the speed and cadence the horse needs to do his best on a given.course. jumping is very technical.
If you get the wrong distance on brighter jumps you can knock a pole down or even crash into.a jump.
What height is your friend jumping? Under 3 feet isore forgiving
Three feet is the height of a kitchen table.
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A pony is technically an equine that measures below a certain height. There are specific pony breeds (Shetland, Welsh, etc.), but any breed of horse can be pony-size. Pony Club isn’t just for ponies, but for junior riders, many of whom ride ponies (I guess). Here’s the Pony Club 411:
https://www.ponyclub.org/about/uspc-history
ETA Ponies are not a different species from horses.
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OP, I just want to say kudos to you for learning about your girlfriend’s interest. When we started dating, my now-husband bought a copy of Horses for Dummies. I would be happy to mail it to you if we still have it. He wouldn’t agree because he’s self-deprecating, but I believe he’s moved on from the dummies phase. In any case, he has not taken the wrong brown horse out of the field in a very long time…
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That reminds me of the classic piece of advice to only buy plain brown horses so that it’s harder for anyone to keep track of how many you have. Lol.
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Another great resource, written by a horse show dad, is “A Man Walks into a Barn.” The author was also a columnist on COTH so you can probably find some of his stuff online for free. Here you go - https://www.chronofhorse.com/keyword/blogger-chad-oldfather/
The best advice that I can give you is to be helpful without being annoying. One issue is that the line between helpful and annoying can move depending on the circumstance and the day. Try asking, assuming that isn’t annoying in the moment.
Some people are OK with friends tagging along while they walk the course. Others aren’t. Probably most aren’t, even if the friend literally just tags along and doesn’t say anything. Most people aren’t OK with having a conversation while they’re getting ready or possibly even when they’re thinking about getting ready.
Excellent advice upthread about videoing and photographing. Even if you don’t have the camera or skills for getting action shots, people really like candids of them with their horse and/or trainer. And you can do that with a phone camera. Even better if you have a real camera. The latest in-thing seems to be slow-mo videos.
On horse strides. When people walk the course, FOUR human strides equals one horse stride, but you have to account for landing and takeoff in the line of jumps which accounts for a total of one horse stride. So someone might count 1-2-3-zero, 1-2-3-one, 1-2-3-two for a two stride line, if that makes sense. On a bending line there might be stride options depending on the track (time can be saved with a more efficient track).
Jumpers have different “tables” which will determine whether there is a jumpoff and whether the jumpoff starts right after the first round, is essentially a continuation of the first round (zero break), or (less commonly) you come out of the ring and wait for everyone to go before you do the jumpoff. This may kind of help - https://www.equivont.com/blog/jumper-tables-for-dummies/?srsltid=AfmBOooR7tYCJGKdq4s5BvF2A3shZfLc9Eg2rxdJC4EOKRZ80HXHB4dJ
In addition to a clinic, another possibility is a riding vacation, or a vacation that includes some riding, depending on how much riding you do or don’t want to do.
Have fun.
(Note - all cap FOUR is an edit for bad math).
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Wait, what??
Is that human a professional basketball player?
I’ve always thought the average human takes about a 3 foot step if they’re walking like they mean business, which would come out to four human steps to equal a 12 foot horse stride.
So you would start about where the horse lands in the line, maybe 5-6 feet in from the first jump. Then count 1-2-3-4, 2-2-3-4, 3-2-3-4, 4-2-3-4, which should put you around 5-6 feet from the second jump at the take off spot in a four stride (60 foot) line.
That’s how I’ve always done it, anyway.
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I fixed my bad math. Thanks for noticing that.
But I do count from jump to jump, so the “zero” accounts for the landing and takeoff.
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It’s more like skiing - each person takes their turn through the course and whoever gets the fastest time without faults wins. You wouldn’t call that a “race” -> generally a race implies everyone goes at the same time and whoever crosses finish line first is the winner.
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Haha, I actually knew a woman who sold her chestnut gelding and bought a new chestnut gelding, and never told her husband. (It’s a terrible idea, but somewhat funny from a bystander.)
Here are a few short informational videos. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jaT2oEaLJi8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xja5ahBDvOI
Really good basics of high-level jumper classes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N5nnon1Qbw
Here’s a great, easy resource:
https://practicalhorsemanmag.com/training/jumping-clinic-beezie-madden/
You’ll learn what the judges are looking for in terms of the rider’s position and the horse’s jumping form. There are also videos that are critiqued so you can get an idea how a whole trip is judged, rather than just an individual jumping effort.
haha thank you for the offer but ive got two books coming in, got plenty of reading material already.
Thanks again
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Thanks for the response, the links and the info!
Will do, appreciate it!
Awesome! Thanks
Thank you! This helps a lot
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you’re so sweet to care so much and to take such an interest
I think that’s better than having to ride up to the judge in the middle of a dressage test to inform them that I was off course, after a series of violent spooks from the mare and me picking up in the middle of what was actually a different test. The judge hadn’t even noticed; perhaps she just thought that after several teleports at E, I was just riding around randomly. We agreed that I should restart the test at a particular point. OTOH, this judge was known for being a bit spacey.
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