Is Pony Club still " a thing"?

[Sunflower]

Is Pony Club “a thing” anymore-- i.e. does it still exist? I did not have the benefit of Pony Club training as a kid-- though I desperately wished there had been such a thing in my area. The solid skills that it taught, not just about riding, but about horses and management and training, seem to go missing at all levels of riding today. Yes, there are some with the solid all around skills, and there are others without.

Sadly it is hard to avoid the impression that horse riding and showing has just become a ribbon grab. If your skills aren’t up to snuff buy a high dollar packer and get around anyway and get a ribbon. When I was a kid, learning to ride, the rule was that you had to ride for two years before you jumped. Now the rule seems to be about two seconds… how many people jump without solid basic skills like independent hands and seat?

So-- is there still Pony Club? Where? How can its wisdom be spread among riders of all ages, if it is still out there?

[Fig]

Pony Club is definitely still out there! There is an adult branch that is called Horse Masters as well.

[asterix]

In eventing, at least in the mid-Atlantic, lots of kids come up through Pony Club. They also now do Center programs where kids without their own horses can participate on school horses.

[Mango20]

www.ponyclub.org

There are about 12,000 members. Unfortunately, Pony Club does not seem to attract too many hunter kids in my area.

[FirstChance]

There’s pony club out here too. I would love to put my son in it, but the wide range of travel makes it prohibitive. We don’t have a trailer and they were not very encouraging about the possibility of finding something in their existing group that might allow us to hitch a ride. 4-H seems to be much easier to access though I don’t think the learning is as great.

[flashwhitelock]

pony club and huntseat equitation

[QUOTE=Mango20;8134160]
www.ponyclub.org

There are about 12,000 members. Unfortunately, Pony Club does not seem to attract too many hunter kids in my area.[/QUOTE]

Pony Club has kept up with the times and as the disciplines have become more specialized in position, Pony Club has responded.

Pony Club now offers certification in the different disciplines. The big eq has come to PC! It has changed the attitude of our area to USPC and now it is an accepted way to get the knowledge.

A good example of current USPC- The January issue of Practical Horseman George Morris column “three legs that need some work” features the 1st rider, the correct example of the four, who is a USPC member. As George Morris says it about her position “you just have to like this rider…” That riders position and attitude he extolls is due to USPC.

[soloudinhere]

It’s definitely still a thing. I hauled 8 kids to a quiz rally last month.

That said I think one of the tenets of pony club that has changed a lot is that it used to really be necessary to have your own pony. Now that they’ve invented the riding center and you can use a school pony, IMO (and that’s just it, an opinion) the riding/horsemanship has degraded. Maybe it’s me but the kids I see riding the school ponies at the riding center located where I board are once-a-weekers and they really aren’t involved in the day to day, which was part of the reason you really needed your own pony to proceed in pony club.

I wish there was more of an emphasis on owning your own and managing your own. I understand the finances of it, but the idea that someone else will just always own a horse of a particular caliber for you to ride on demand and just give you a new one when that one is broken is not such a good feature of the Riding Center model.

[flashwhitelock]

[QUOTE=soloudinhere;8134247]
It’s definitely still a thing. I hauled 8 kids to a quiz rally last month.

That said I think one of the tenets of pony club that has changed a lot is that it used to really be necessary to have your own pony. Now that they’ve invented the riding center and you can use a school pony, IMO (and that’s just it, an opinion) the riding/horsemanship has degraded. Maybe it’s me but the kids I see riding the school ponies at the riding center located where I board are once-a-weekers and they really aren’t involved in the day to day, which was part of the reason you really needed your own pony to proceed in pony club.

I wish there was more of an emphasis on owning your own and managing your own. I understand the finances of it, but the idea that someone else will just always own a horse of a particular caliber for you to ride on demand and just give you a new one when that one is broken is not such a good feature of the Riding Center model.[/QUOTE]

You never had to own your own horse. I’m an HA graduate case in point. Even my A testing was with horses I borrowed and rode for the first time on the day of the testing. I attended many rallies as horse manager but only rode in one regional rally in my entire USPC career and even that was on a borrowed horse (thank you Kathy Von Erkfelda.) The riding center model is actually closer to the old Pony Club model that I encountered as a kid. IF anything the knowledge level at the upper levels is actually much more technical now.

Even when you don’t own your own horse you still “pick” a horse and you follow that horse as if he is your own. None of the horse requirements are excused even though you are on a borrowed horse. You still need the full record keeping and knowledge of that horse. My kids can attest to the borrowing of horses and still needing all of the knowledge. Many hours are logged filling out the horse records and practicing the tpr’s on the borrowed horses.

[soloudinhere]

[QUOTE=flashwhitelock;8134268]
You never had to own your own horse. I’m an HA graduate case in point. Even my A testing was with horses I borrowed and rode for the first time on the day of the testing. I attended many rallies as horse manager but only rode in one regional rally in my entire USPC career and even that was on a borrowed horse (thank you Kathy Von Erkfelda.) The riding center model is actually closer to the old Pony Club model that I encountered as a kid. IF anything the knowledge level at the upper levels is actually much more technical now.

Even when you don’t own your own horse you still “pick” a horse and you follow that horse as if he is your own. None of the horse requirements are excused even though you are on a borrowed horse. You still need the full record keeping and knowledge of that horse. My kids can attest to the borrowing of horses and still needing all of the knowledge. Many hours are logged filling out the horse records and practicing the tpr’s on the borrowed horses.[/QUOTE]

You missed my point about the horsemanship. At the upper levels that might be true but for your average C pony clubber, they come and ride their one lesson a week and don’t have one horse they’re responsible for. Maybe it’s just this group of people, and maybe it’s a problem with the parents, but instead of being grateful for the generosity of others providing horses for ratings, etc they expect a string of lesson horses to be at their disposal to take their kid all the way through B rating and never have to buy, lease, or locate their own.

[vxf111]

Having a hunter “track” will go a ways in getting more hunter kids involved. But it takes good DCs/leaders and they are sometimes in short supply.

[Dewey]

I think both the previous posters are correct. Owning a horse was never technically required, but having access to one was. I knew lots of kids who got through the “C” level on what we called “camp horses,” horses owned by a summer camp that were farmed out to Pony Clubbers during the rest of the year. Every member of my club had to have a mount for weekly “drill” (group lesson) and for rallies. I also remember a few families with one horse shared by a couple of siblings. Now this was some time ago (70s). The “Riding Center” model is new to me. I can see the shortcomings, but I also realize that it’s an adaption to changing times and the desire to make PC accessible to more kids. I suppose “camp horses” aren’t an option for many these days.

What amazes me about my Pony Club experience in retrospect is how much volunteer effort it took, effort we totally took for granted at the time. I’m not just talking about the parents, who of course gave a tremendous amount of time. I’m talking about the instructors. Our DC was a top-level dressage and CT judge, nationally known. She (and several other highly-qualified instructors) gave weekly group lessons and conducted monthly unmounted meetings for hundreds of PCers weekly–all for free. I can hardly believe it now. What an amazing organization it was, and how much I benefited from it.

[findeight]

It depends on the quality of the chapter and the skill of those running it. Some are fabulous, some not and some are bad news.

The cost of horse ownership is getting to be an issue too. Some chapters do require you to bring your own horse to activities and distance/time required to get to that activity and back home can determine whether kids can participate or not. Somebody mentioned the once a week non owners in a riding center setting? Without them, that chapter may be considerably shorter on members and budget.

Thats why you get so many different responses to PC questions, each chapter is different and faces different challenges. The closest one to me is two hours on mostly state roads. Each way.

[soloudinhere]

[QUOTE=findeight;8134307]
It depends on the quality of the chapter and the skill of those running it. Some are fabulous, some not and some are bad news.

The cost of horse ownership is getting to be an issue too. Some chapters do require you to bring your own horse to activities and distance/time required to get to that activity and back home can determine whether kids can participate or not. Somebody mentioned the once a week non owners in a riding center setting? Without them, that chapter may be considerably shorter on members and budget.

Thats why you get so many different responses to PC questions, each chapter is different and faces different challenges. The closest one to me is two hours on mostly state roads. Each way.[/QUOTE]

The problem is that using them for funding is bringing the quality of riding and knowledge down.

Around here, riding centers are not that inexpensive. Most places charge a lot more than this place does, but it’s just not a sustainable model to have 20 kids at all levels from D1 to B1 trying to share two group lessons and get anything out of it.

Out of curiosity I went and looked up the clubs that cleaned this particular group’s clock at rallies last year. Both require you to have your own horse, either one that you actually own or a horse to ride every week, that you have to bring to the facility for mounted meetings. Both hold horse shows to fundraise for expenses. Both have much more required in terms of attendance, financial committment, and parental involvement than our center. They all perform better because of it.

So the quality really goes to how professionally the group is run.

[Equitational]

We have a local pony club chapter that just re-started a year ago after a long hiatus. I’m not sure how big their chapter is though. I think PC principals are good, I learned a lot by reading the PC Manual when I was a kid (even if I never did actually did PC). But from my understanding, the local PC don’t compete in horses shows? I think showing helps test your skills in a new environment, so I think in that regard, the hunter kids who do actively show may be steps above a pony clubber in that respect.

[findeight]

What percentage of the chapter membership is the non owning school riders?

Part of the issue might lie with the coaching and homework being given.

[Foxtrot_s]

Very much so - a lot of the Olympic riders came through Pony Club ranks.

PC teaches, as well as riding, responsibility, team work, and commitment.
There is a pay-back system where older kids help the younger ones. There is very little drugs or alcohol or juvie problems in Pony Club – everyone is too busy.

There is something for everyone in the various programs offered - it is not just about having the best horse and winning rally…kids make lifelong friends through a common interest. Parents are expected to volunteer to make the club run, but there are ups and downs as in any organization of the type. Everyone can help out somewhere, even if it just the muffins and coffee to begin with, or opening a gate at a show. That’s half the pleasure - having family involved.

It served me and my girls very well.

[soloudinhere]

[QUOTE=findeight;8134341]
What percentage of the chapter membership is the non owning school riders?

Part of the issue might lie with the coaching and homework being given.[/QUOTE]

Out of I think 25 or so members, two have access to horses of the caliber required to get above D rating, and those horses are not owned by them but instead provided by boarders. All the rest cycle through lesson horses and I doubt any of them have any intention of being much more than once-a-weekers until their interest wanes.

[2foals]

As others have said, yes, Pony Club is still out there and going strong. I compete in the hunters and jumpers, but my three kids primarily do Pony Club. Pony Club has a much stronger emphasis on developing knowledge and skill sets both as a horseperson and as a rider, and much less emphasis on ribbons or on having a fancy horse. Pony Club has an excellent curriculum laid out through the different levels that includes just about every aspect of horse care, management and training. There also is MUCH more emphasis on developing independence. You don’t see adults and pony jocks prepping other people’s ponies/horses the morning of a competition at a pony club rally.

Unfortunately, Pony Club is not popular at many h/j barns. Many trainers don’t have the desire to trailer out a pony (or allow a pony to be trailered out by someone else) to a Pony Club lesson, camp or competition where the trainer does not have any teaching or training role. It just doesn’t fit in logistically and economically with the routine of a h/j barn where schedules are based around traveling to shows with groups of people and horses where the trainer manages and trains all the kids and ponies.

[soloudinhere]

These things used to not be mutually exclusive. There were a lot of kids in the pony hunters in the 70s with pony club pins on their hunt caps. The sport has changed, in general.

In general, though, I see a huge trend towards leasing/just taking lessons and letting the horse be somebody else’s worry/responsibility/problem that makes me sad.

[Janet]

[QUOTE=soloudinhere;8134316]
So the quality really goes to how professionally the group is run.[/QUOTE]

That has ALWAYS been the case.
(I got my B rating in 1971)

ALthough they were not called out as a separate structure, there were riding school based Pony Clubs, where the students rode school horses, even back then. For instance, Sunnyfield Farm in Bedford had many such horses and riders. The horse I got my B on was one we bought from Sunnyfield’s riding school program.