Pony Club horse and pony care comp/achievement badges

tootsietoo

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Just wondering if anyone here is involved in organising stable management rallies/training for the horse and pony care competition and achievement badges. I have been organising mini badge rallies for a while (I'm a parent, not an instructor), and just started doing some rallies with the aim of getting a team together for the H&PC competition - these are pitched at a higher level than the mini badge rallies.

The PC website and literature is fairly unhelpful on how badges should be awarded. I've been giving the mini badges to all who attend the mini badge rallies, but now I've got a mixed age group coming to rallies and I'd like to give an achievement badge (ie. the big ones) to the older children and a mini badge to the younger ones, but not sure where the age cut off should be, and whether I should be actually testing the children a bit more before awarding a big achievement badge.

Obviously I can ask our DC/chief instructor to decide, but it would be interesting to know how other pony clubs do it - advice appreciated.

Thanks
 

Lolo

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For our badge rallies our instructor had a list of things you needed to be able to do to get the badge, there were 4 or 5 stations and we were in groups and we just went to each station, were taught about the thing and then demonstrated it, and were awarded the badge.

For my first PC, badges were a thing from when you were 7-12 or so, and after that you just worked for your C/C+ and beyond. Second PC was more 7-10 (junior camp age) and after that you just worked for your proper tests. The second PC was much more chilled and fun than the first, but did better in teams and the H&PC comp.
 

sollimum

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10 December 2013
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Just wondering if anyone here is involved in organising stable management rallies/training for the horse and pony care competition and achievement badges. I have been organising mini badge rallies for a while (I'm a parent, not an instructor), and just started doing some rallies with the aim of getting a team together for the H&PC competition - these are pitched at a higher level than the mini badge rallies.

The PC website and literature is fairly unhelpful on how badges should be awarded. I've been giving the mini badges to all who attend the mini badge rallies, but now I've got a mixed age group coming to rallies and I'd like to give an achievement badge (ie. the big ones) to the older children and a mini badge to the younger ones, but not sure where the age cut off should be, and whether I should be actually testing the children a bit more before awarding a big achievement badge.

Obviously I can ask our DC/chief instructor to decide, but it would be interesting to know how other pony clubs do it - advice appreciated.

Thanks

I run the mini achievement badges for our branch and the mini badges are awarded to the children up to 8 years of age (approx.) in our branch. Some of the main achievement badges are suitable for children of 8 years plus, some of the others the children really need to be at least 10 to get the most from the badge session (eg lorinery). We tend to go into much more detail for the main achievement badges. The mini badges and main badges tend to be taught separately as we have some very young minis in our branch. Please let me know if you need more info.
 

tootsietoo

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Thanks Lolo and Sollimum. I may well pm you when I'm in organising mode, if that's ok. I felt 8 was a fair cut off age - most of the 8 year olds and upwards who want to come to the unmounted rallies are fairly mature and can take in what the slightly older ones do. The mini badges are great for providing some interest for the littlies (4-7 ish) but the big achievement badges overlap a bit with training for tests etc so not quite sure whether they're that useful!
 

sollimum

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Thanks Lolo and Sollimum. I may well pm you when I'm in organising mode, if that's ok. I felt 8 was a fair cut off age - most of the 8 year olds and upwards who want to come to the unmounted rallies are fairly mature and can take in what the slightly older ones do. The mini badges are great for providing some interest for the littlies (4-7 ish) but the big achievement badges overlap a bit with training for tests etc so not quite sure whether they're that useful!

We have regularly sent teams to the quiz and h and p areas and champs over the last few years. Certain badges eg: lorinery, feeding, equine first aid, handling and grooming, care of the foot etc are all good for the competitions and D, D+ and C tests I think....
 
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