Pony club ... good or bad?

Like most things in life, some are good and some leave a lot to be desired. Really depends on who is running the branch and quality of instructors.
 
I personally loved my time in the PC. I know some people have differing opinions, but they really were the best days of my childhood. Still go and help out now...
 
I agree with Juno it depends on the branch.
My 14 year old daughter joined for the first time last Oct. She has had a great time ever since, lots of rallys, training for team SJing, brill instructors, she has a rally every 2 wks or so at the moment and they hold them in the evening which means I dont have to use my leave. Plus side for me is the rally cost £5 for an hour lesson with small group sizes.
However I have heard quite a few horror stories, we went in with our eyes open and haven't regretted it ..... so far.

Liz
 
JunoXV said:
Like most things in life, some are good and some leave a lot to be desired. Really depends on who is running the branch and quality of instructors.
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Um yes. My daughter is in one. I love some of it, realy fed up with some of it to the point of thinking no longer going.
She made up a team on another branch the other week and it was totally different but they are too far away.

Not sure if its feelings at present and to stick it out or to revert to private lessons.

Just interested in other views before i make my mind up.
 
studentvet said:
I personally loved my time in the PC. I know some people have differing opinions, but they really were the best days of my childhood. Still go and help out now...
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That is wonderful and is what we were looking for. My daughter wanted to join for years but now not sure about it all.
 
smudge99 said:
I agree with Juno it depends on the branch.
My 14 year old daughter joined for the first time last Oct. She has had a great time ever since, lots of rallys, training for team SJing, brill instructors, she has a rally every 2 wks or so at the moment and they hold them in the evening which means I dont have to use my leave. Plus side for me is the rally cost £5 for an hour lesson with small group sizes.
However I have heard quite a few horror stories, we went in with our eyes open and haven't regretted it ..... so far.

Liz
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That is good, i am realy pleased for you. We have not attended so many rallies this year because of some of the older girls. My daughter is 14 and rather touchy at present through bullying at school.
We have enjoyed a lot of it but i have found some training a waste of money.
 
I loved one PC branch but not another. Either way though I got an awful lot out of it, and really enjoyed the activities they did. The stable management stuff was much better IMO than you get in the BHS exams now. Much more comprehensive from an earlier stage.

The earliest level that the kids are encouraged to take is done like a fun quiz "who knows how to pick out their pony's feet?" "who can point to the Poll" etc... no pressure, but the kids are learning.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. If the first one doesn't suit, try a different branch. Most will let you go and watch and chat to people beore you join.
 
Good!! I loved it, some of the best times of my life too. I was on all the teams, went to pony club camp ect and it gave me so much confidence. It really was so great.

Looking back I can see that there was some snobbery going on mainly amongst some of the mothers (some were a bit clique) but as a child that all went completely over my head! I had a fab time and made loads of friends some I'm still in touch with now :)
 
jenhunt said:
I loved one PC branch but not another. Either way though I got an awful lot out of it, and really enjoyed the activities they did. The stable management stuff was much better IMO than you get in the BHS exams now. Much more comprehensive from an earlier stage.

The earliest level that the kids are encouraged to take is done like a fun quiz "who knows how to pick out their pony's feet?" "who can point to the Poll" etc... no pressure, but the kids are learning.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone. If the first one doesn't suit, try a different branch. Most will let you go and watch and chat to people beore you join.
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I think you have given the advice i needed. We are in our local one, the next nearest do very little sop i will have to do some looking.

As it has been bad recently i think i was looking at it as Pony Club as a whole although the other branch she joined a team on were all fantastic and she had a wonderful time with them. They were not so highly placed but had fantastic fun rather than miserable higher placed.
 
Yep, my parents were hesitant about joining ''The Pony Club'' I think it had a bit of a stigma about it. She was very worried she wouldnt fit in and neither would I (I think she had images of show ponies and twee mothers with wicker hampers from Fortnum and Masons!!). But there was a new girl at our livery yard and she was in PC and was having so much fun! So mum let me join and we have never looked back - mum developed a whole new group of friends who she is still close to 13 years later! So did I. Infact my closest friends at 'home' (as opposed to uni) were all my PC buddies. We have been together since we were about 8 and have had so much fun together.

With regards to the horses, I went from a relatively nervous little girl who was basically happy to walk, trot and canter, to competing at open PC eventing without anyone pushing me - they were just really friendly and encouraging. The camps were AMAZING! Seriously - they actually were the highlight of my childhood. We have all decided that (as 20-somethings!) we are going to go and have a little weekend together away with the horses as a kind of 'camp-reunuion'!!

Needless to say, I am joining my two little nieces as soon as we find them a suitable little scruffy thing for them to ride!
 
firewell said:
Good!! I loved it, some of the best times of my life too. I was on all the teams, went to pony club camp ect and it gave me so much confidence. It really was so great.

Looking back I can see that there was some snobbery going on mainly amongst some of the mothers (some were a bit clique) but as a child that all went completely over my head! I had a fab time and made loads of friends some I'm still in touch with now :)
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It's good to hear some good reports. I knpoow about thesnobbery but that does not bother me. There are some lovly mums on the outside so to speak but unfortunatly at teams my daughter is in a seperate ring with the ones who will not register i exist or my daughter.

My daughter snapped yesterday a couple of nasty girls on her team - just before i was about to be polite about it. I then had enough and pulled my daughter out of the next class. It was not a pleant day. We joined for fun not misery.

There is no way i could let my daughter go to camp. I know one of the mothers who stays and what the girls get up to is disgusting.
 
studentvet said:
Yep, my parents were hesitant about joining ''The Pony Club'' I think it had a bit of a stigma about it. She was very worried she wouldnt fit in and neither would I (I think she had images of show ponies and twee mothers with wicker hampers from Fortnum and Masons!!). But there was a new girl at our livery yard and she was in PC and was having so much fun! So mum let me join and we have never looked back - mum developed a whole new group of friends who she is still close to 13 years later! So did I. Infact my closest friends at 'home' (as opposed to uni) were all my PC buddies. We have been together since we were about 8 and have had so much fun together.

With regards to the horses, I went from a relatively nervous little girl who was basically happy to walk, trot and canter, to competing at open PC eventing without anyone pushing me - they were just really friendly and encouraging. The camps were AMAZING! Seriously - they actually were the highlight of my childhood. We have all decided that (as 20-somethings!) we are going to go and have a little weekend together away with the horses as a kind of 'camp-reunuion'!!

Needless to say, I am joining my two little nieces as soon as we find them a suitable little scruffy thing for them to ride!
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Just what i dreamed of and got the opposite. Daughters riding gone downhill and so has ponies consequently.
Miserable child, pony and mother.
 
horses13 said:
Just what i dreamed of and got the opposite. Daughters riding gone downhill and so has ponies consequently.
Miserable child, pony and mother.
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Then I would look at other branches. They arent all bad, and some people are just more suited to one branch than another. It may well be worth looking further afield as it would be worth travelling for the fab times that you can have.
 
Why would you not want your daughter to go to camp?? What sort of things do the other girls get up too??
At my camps it was all good healthy fun. Yes we didn't really sleep and would be having midnight picnics on the XC course ect but the mothers and pony club officials were always around to make sure we were safe.. There was one boy who went which we all tried to kiss lol (talking senior camp here!) but it was all very innocent. It was all about the horses really!!
It's at Uni were u want to watch it lol ;)
I'd never stop my child going to camp! Much healthier stuff went on at camp then school tbh and it gave me so much confidence with the riding and was just so much fun messing around with the ponies.
 
I think we are very lucky as I have no complaints about out PC. We have good instructors, regular rally's and everyone has the opportunity to be on a team although this year it seems not many want to. Years ago it was a bit clique'y but now its great and everyone is made to feel very welcome. I would never stop my daughter going to camp, its the highlight of her year, we've even had to cancel a BE run so she could go. They do have a VERY strict matron at camp who allows a certain amount but always makes sure things don't go too far. I think you just have to go and see how you get on.
 
We never got up to much at camp... Although I do remember wanting to have a midnight snack in the field with the horses and a bunch of us sneeked out to the paddocks but there was a particularly strict instructor who slept in her parked lorry in the field and she heard us and came out with a flash light and tried to find us. So there was all of us scuttling away and the next morning noone could understand why there were mini-rolls scattered all over the field that we had dropped in our panic!! We thought we were such rebels!!!!
 
Lol student vet! That's what it was like at ours! We were found having our picnic by a flash light weilding commitee member!
We were meant to be asleep by 11pm which we mostly were as we were so tired from all the riding ect during the day. We also had to tack clean and boot clean everything untill it was spotless in the evening ready for our inspection at 9am the next morn. I used to do it in my sleeping bag and would wake up cuddling my bridle lol. We also didn't wash For the whole week as no showers!

The scandal of the week was my friend being locked in a stable for all of 2 mins with the only boy at camp, ooh err! Lol

I'm 27 now and I went to camp a few times around the ages of 12-15. So quite a few years ago.. Maybe it's different now.. Who knows!
 
I had the best time in PC - learnt so much, made many friends and had the opportunity to try things that I might otherwise never have done. I think it's a great institution but I do know that not all branches are alike - I'm sure there are some that don't offer as much. On the whole, I'm all for children joining - very, very worthwhile!
 
JunoXV said:
Like most things in life, some are good and some leave a lot to be desired. Really depends on who is running the branch and quality of instructors.
Click to expand...

This is very true. I was in PC when I was younger, then had a break (I didn't have very well behaved PC ponies, more silly little beggers so PC was a waste of time, didn't really suit trotting to the back of the group, walking for about 10 minutes whilst everyone else took it in turns to trot and then having another little trot, ten minutes walk etc.)
I rejoined last year on my coloured mare, thinking that as I was much older things would be different. Tbh again it was a waste of time, she never liked PC, would mess about xc as it was always jump one fence, wait for everyone else, walk to the next fence etc.
In all honest I don't think I learnt a single thing in my PC lessons/rallies last year.

I'm now in a riding club which has a junior section and I love it, learnt so much from brilliant instructor which has helped with my youngster lots and lots. Also being a riding club you don't get so much pushy parents/ "my daugher is amazing" parents etc, :D
 
I think it totally depends on the person. I hated PC- I was shy, people my age were cliquey (stupidly it's never been like that since that particular group left!), and I was scared of jumping (and in a PC known for setting record XC times that doesn't tend to go down well!). However my little sister loved it and did really well. In fact it's worked out nicely as most people from our PC graduate into the same local riding club, so the atmosphere is always really good. I really wish I'd enjoyed it more, and if I have kids I'll probably send them.

As to PC camp- it was pretty tame when I went, most people were too knackered to do anything but sleep! A few of the girls caused chaos on the final night one year and were promptly banned from returning to camp. Having said that there are/were very few lads in my PC, and most of them were at the younger end of the scale.
 
Reminiscing now...I remember sneaking back our tent in the middle of the night, but all attempt at being quiet failed epicly as I tripped over a tent peg line, my friend then tripped over me and we proceeded to bring down about 2 tents!
Never got caught though....we dived into our tent and turned a blind eye!!! Lol.
 
It was the best time of my life, and I didn't have a pony! My parents were very supportive, though, and hired one fro me when they could. I ended up in the open eventing team on a riding school pony, there was a lot of snobbery then but I loved the ponies so much that it washed right over me. My daughter is nine and fortunate to have her own, she loves her pony club and is in the mounted games team. We have an active pony club centre near us as well which is great for ponyless kids, there are always a number of them at rallies, shows and camp and there doesn't seem to be as much snobbery today as there was 40 years ago. As everyone says, it depends so much on people and personalities, and a different branch may be more welcoming. I've also started helping organise sj training for the smaller ones which is great to be able to put something back into the organisation, I'm sure as with many walks of life that you get out as much as you put in. Good luck, I hope your daughter has a more enjoyable time, its such a shame if personalities take away from the true ethos of the organisation.
 
Hated Pony Club.

i was in 3 different branches and all were full of horrible snobby children, parents who looked down on you and instructors who weren't interested if your pony wasn't a £10k jump anything/born in an outline job.
 
JunoXV said:
Like most things in life, some are good and some leave a lot to be desired. Really depends on who is running the branch and quality of instructors.
Click to expand...

:) That is it in a nutshell. :)

I went through an excellent PC (Axe Vale, '74-'81. Thankyou Mrs Sleight) and thoroughly enjoyed every moment of my time there.

I was also a Committee Member/Instructor/Secretary/PC Mum for several years at a small Welsh club, and we all found that however hard you try, it is impossible to please all of the people all of the time (Members and Committee)

All in all though, people who volunteer their time for PCs do so for the best of intentions. I can't begin to tell you how annoying I find it when PCs are slated on here, not all are bad.
 
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I thoroughly enjoyed my time at Pony Club, even though I didn't have my own horse. My first experience was spending a summer with my cousin when my parents were away, so I went to rallies and camp on her old pony in the wilds of north wales in a great PC (that my dad and uncles were in years before!) and had a ball!
After this, I convinced my parents to let me join our local PC up north, using borrowed ponies from the riding school. Although this PC was a bit more serious in terms of competing etc, I had a great time too. Although I couldn't bring a horse very often I was always included, and people really helped me out (especially as I got older) by offering lifts and ponies to use etc. There was undoubtedly some cliques and snobbery about, but never aimed at me as my parents weren't involved.
I learnt more at PC than I ever did working with horses, I think it is a really good foundation for horses if you have a good branch. Also, I made friends for life and have some amazing memories!
 
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