Is Pony Club branch membership down?

RachelFerd

RachelFerd

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I was thinking about this recently - I'm at a BIG mainly DIY livery yard where there are lots of kids and ponies (lets say about 30 or so under 21s), and as far as I am aware, not one of them is a Pony Club member. Which seemed a bit odd to me, as when I was that age, everyone who had their own pony was a PC branch member - even if not a particularly active one.

I was then queueing up to buy photos when I was at Gatcombe yesterday and heard two former PC volunteer/officials discussing how their branches had lost huge numbers of members - there were only a handful of kids at a Pony Club camp rather than 100+ a decade or two ago.

Initially they were blaming BE and other comp orgs for reduction in numbers. But that certainly isn't the reason why my DIY yard kids aren't members - the only activity they do is unaff dressage and a bit of showing.

They also blamed NSEA (national schools equestrian assoc) which seems more of a likely culprit to me - offering the 'team experience' to kids to stick around with kids they already know from school, across all the disciplines. I understand that NSEA has no educational/training offer as part of it, so that seems quite worrying. Furthermore, majority of schools taking part a fee-paying, and there's no proactive encouragement for kids from different backgrounds to mix as they would at a PC.

I have mixed feelings about my PC experiences (which were 15-25 years ago) - the standard of training was BRILLIANT (regular instructors are mainly now either FBHS's or well known competition riders). We did lots of unmounted stable management stuff, taught by people who really knew the detail. The exam system was good, and fed straight into the BHS system. I did get to mix with lots of far 'posher' children than I would otherwise have done from my comprehensive school background - which has probably helped me learn to wing it in life. I did tetrathlon teams which were a lot of fun.

BUT there was also some extremely poor decision making about team membership, overly competitive parents, snobby behaviour about who had access to 'good' horses/ponies to ride. Judgement about now knowing the right people or things.

However, it does worry me that children coming through aren't getting the access to all that brilliant (affordable) training, working through a progressive education system and learning about a complete picture of horsemanship and competition. I had assumed that the picture at my yard was just that our local pony clubs weren't much good - but it sounds like pony club membership might be struggling much more widely...

Do you think it is? And if so, why?!
 
I have been treasurer for our local branch for over 10 years now. We're not particularly big, but our membership has remained pretty constant at mid 50s for the whole of that time. Obviously some children have come and gone, and the older ones move on to other things, but we have a regular stream of new younger members. Out of that mid 50s, there were mid 30s at our camp this year, and most of the rest of the membership are active throughout the year.
 
I used to keep my stabled horses at a yard which the local PC used, and they had camp at a yard up the road. it was always rammed. this was pre pandemic but only just... friends went to this years camp and it seemed as busy as ever.

I have really mixed memories of PC, I did the quiz team (as did not require horse transport and i am a huge geek) and then PPC as a friend was into it so i could catch a lift, but we were not posh enough to feel like we were in the in-crowd. Some of the horse power for the local PC I yard-shared with was impressive... perhaps some people feel alienated by it.
 
milliepops said:
I used to keep my stabled horses at a yard which the local PC used, and they had camp at a yard up the road. it was always rammed. this was pre pandemic but only just... friends went to this years camp and it seemed as busy as ever.

I have really mixed memories of PC, I did the quiz team (as did not require horse transport and i am a huge geek) and then PPC as a friend was into it so i could catch a lift, but we were not posh enough to feel like we were in the in-crowd. Some of the horse power for the local PC I yard-shared with was impressive... perhaps some people feel alienated by it.
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I won the quiz one year! I mean, as part of 'team', but I was carrying that team with my extreme geekiness.
 
RachelFerd said:
I won the quiz one year! I mean, as part of 'team', but I was carrying that team with my extreme geekiness.
Click to expand...
yup the quiz team was, at that point, my only marker of equestrian success :p oh, and i won the camp ODE one year as mine was the only pony in my group that would go in the water jump (was the Chepstow horse trials course way back when)
 
Our local PC is mainly dead and tbh they deserve it. No change from the couple of years I was a member, if you haven’t got money and a pony that can jump 1.00m tracks or do BD, there isn’t a place for you.

The local RC has a kids club on Saturday mornings, lessons all morning and comps every 6 weeks. They have a waiting list a mile long, lots of little hairy ponies and kids who don’t always want to compete.

The local riding school is also full of kids, several of whom are on DIY and they’d rather go for a long ride and jump logs than PC.
 
Both my son (now mid 30s) and I got a huge amount from our PC days, both branches were pretty inclusive and had a wide range of abilities and horsepower. The branch my son was in has seen a huge drop in membership and is mainly only younger members now. I used to train the intermediate and open teams, now they have no one at that level. There seems to be much more available to young riders now in terms of competitions and clinics etc at lower levels that PC seems to have too much competition to attract members sadly.
 
I live in an an area which seems to have a lot of PC's, and each is very different. We went for the the one that is mainly country based farmers children, that hunted and did a lot of non competitive activities. My children had done the same rallies for ten years plus, so we moved just for a change of venues, and it was a bit of a culture shock.
The ponies were expensive, I stewarded on day, and listened to some of the entitled little ****s, talk to their parents and try to talk down to me. The obsession with teams and jumping, and just general competitiveness, although it was nice to see go some different rallies. I also think there is now a culture of paying for private tuition, which is often more local, therefore cost and time effective. I used to take them to evening rallies, perhaps do a fifty mile round trip, for my daughter to be often stood doing nothing most of the time.
I also think to an outsider PC can be like a secret society, everyone knows things, so they never think to give information to people who are not in the know, even the local BE event does not use What3words for how to get to the blooming entrance, so you have to be a bit pushy, and I think people just can not be bothered anymore.
I would love to help at PC, we moved area, I have no grandchildren, so it would be a bit random me turning up, and most rallies are now based at centre, not in some rough farmers field with cows, and cow pats, complete with a bull.
 
I can't say if numbers are down in my local branch as no longer involved but I know at least one of my closest RC now allow juniors so maybe that's taken some. But what is noticeable in my area of affluent Surrey is that I never see kids out hacking any more, where have they gone? Many local yards have closed and been sold, land here is so expensive that any sniff of potential planning makes equine use a non starter.
 
I hated pc when i was younger. If you didn’t jump they didn’t care about you and it was worthless
 
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I think pony clubs need to be more inclusive and less competitive. More focus on pony care, learning to ride well and most importantly having fun and making friends. Less focus on having a swanky expensive pony that can win everything. The pony clubs around here are affiliated to hunts and kids are strongly encouraged to go hunting, which puts lots of people off.
 
I think it has got more expensive, and that is bound to have an effect.

My two were members for several years but by the time you added in all the rallies etc it adds up, especially if you have more than one child.
Camp was a bit of a killer. I had to choose between sending them to camp or us having a holiday - camp won every time.

I don't regret it at all, they both learned huge amounts, and being in teams etc was really good for them, especially for the unconfident one. We were with a fantastic branch. We were very fortunate to have great DCs and a great team of volunteers. But it was tough on me financially.

We did dabble with NSEA but never had enough at their (state) school to have a full team. I really didn't like the blatant pot hunting that went on though so didn't feel they missed out there.

Edit to add - our branch had its share of families with expensive ponies but also a lot of kids on very, very ordinary ponies - and several members based at a local riding school who didn't have their own.
 
As with everything I think it’s a nuanced answer.
PC has done itself no favours in a lot of ways so RC has a lot of juniors - also easy with rc for mother to have lesson and add kid in as well.
Membership is expensive and parents are not happy just having rallies in fields anymore so costs are £££.
Parents - need I say more!
A lot of diffusing of competition with RC, BE, NSEA, BS JFS etc
Loss of older kids - they don’t stay now.
Lack of importance on stable management.
H&S culture so lost lots of the ‘fun’ - jumping chutes, riding other ponies, removing saddles etc
Lots of parents don’t come from horse backgrounds so don’t see importance of PC
 
Sadly like a lot of other things many PCs have changed over the last 20 years. Costs have increased and rallies are now payable although not very much it does all add up by the time you’ve factored in transport etc. it’s not cheap. Camp at around £250 isn’t affordable to all especially if you’ve several children and add in the cost of sorting the things they need to take. Like a lot of things the ‘good will’ ‘no cost’ idea isn’t around anymore. Fifty years ago instructors would have been horrified to think they’d be paid for imparting their not inconsiderable knowledge. These days a 25 year old with an equine non practical degree in horse management will want st least £30 an hour.
 
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My eldest was a PC member for several years, from aged 10-17. There was a large drop in numbers over that time. I think the first camp he ever did aged 12 had 42. The last one he did, pre covid, there were so few they had to team up with another branch. I think they only had 10/12 from their club.

There seemed to be a loss from older teens (a core group remained, mainly those who were together on the same yard as members of the committee), and more younger members.

We are in an area with two larger PCs and then our smaller one. Our one was very much inclusive with whatever small hairy pony you had, making it work. Almost everyone has ‘ordinary’ poniesIf you wanted to be in teams there was almost always a place for you and the instructors/ committee were super encouraging. Despite being a very small club they actually did quite well with their teams, especially dressage.

I have friends with kids in the others and, from what they’ve said, it seems more competitive in terms of having the ‘right’ pony/ies, the right equipment, pushing to be bigger/better etc etc. One example that struck me as completely different culturally to ours was when a friend was looking for the next step up pony for her daughter, with a view to sell to another PC family in 2/3years. I was keeping an eye on ads for her. I came across a 14h hairy solid coloured cob, I think it was 5/6, had done a bit of everything to a basic level and from the ad/videos seemed a ‘nice person’ that a competent small rider/ parent and teen share could bring on to do PC/RC activities. She dismissed it as apparently at their club almost at the ponies were either registered m and ms or mini sport horse types- there is no interest in cobby types and she was worried about whether such a pony would have any demand when it came to sell on. ?

Because the other PCs are much larger they have more regular rallies/events etc which may in turn cause issue with the smaller one- if you only have 20ish members you can’t be offering year round rallies every other week because not enough people are able to attend to make it worthwhile… so some people leave because it’s not putting on enough events etc etc.
 
My daughter is 7 and we've been a PC member for a little while, both before she had her pony and since we've had him. I must say our local branches have a lot of kids under 10, of course there are a lot of older teens...but they are catering well for the little ones, badges, rallies for younger kids, junior camp etc...so no complaints here! Our local riding school is also a PC centre and there are a lot of centre plus PC members for kids who do not have a horse/pony, so in my experience they are great.

We are a very rural area, most kids keep their own ponies at home...we are in the minority with being at a livery yard. There are no other kids there so PC is absolutely vital for us and for my daughter to ride/meet other pony obsessed kids.

I was a PC member myself 20 plus years ago and they definitely didn't cater so well for the younger ones or ones without their own horse/pony, so I can only say how much better it is now!
 
My pony club days were years ago and our pony club was pretty posh - I sort of scraped in as had very good pony so was needed. Was on an event team once and pony was stabled overnight at another person's farm before going on to competition - their groom cleaned my tack, had never been so clean. No idea how local PCs are getting on but someone at our yard took their young child to camp recently on a very ordinary pony and had a really good time, so that sounds positive.
 
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