Pony Club

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zoelouisem

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Hi, ive got a 6 year old daughter with a lovely honest 11.2 pony allbeit steady but hes safe so thats the main thing.
Im a groom myself at a private yard, i also teach.
I teach my daughter myself along with one of the other instructers where i work so that she doesnt answer her back. ( she does this as a favour as shes my best friend);)
The pony isnt where i work hes at a DIY livery yard, where there are planty of tenagers she has fun with but none of the same age.
They compete in small jumping classes of the lead, although she did her first clear round off the lead the other day and went clear! :D Also some showing, lead rein, novice best rider, i was in the ring with but not on lead rein. And M&M hes very well bred. We compete weekly or fortnightly depending on shows lifts ect.
At home shes very competent off the lead at all 4 paces and jumps courses on her own, she also hacks off the lead.
Anyway a few people have suggested Pony Club, can anybody advise me if this would be benificial for her considering the amount shes doing and getting taught(for free i may add remembering im on a grooms wage and single mummy!). Ive never been or had anything to do with pony club so im not sure how it all works. Any advice would be great, its just in my opinion shes a fantastic little rider with guts of gold and want to give her the best possible chance at this!!:)
 
Pony Club would be a great idea. She'll make loads of like minded friends and generally have a great time. Whereabouts in the country are you? I'm sure local HHOers will point you in the direction of the best PC branch locally. She will have missed (mini) camp this year and all the summer rallies, but I would be talking to your local branch if I were you about membership for next year (from 1st Jan).

The only down point about Pony Club IMHO is the parents.......be careful not to turn into Pony Club Mumzilla....!!!
 
You'll probably find she's way ahead of many of the others in riding ability but for the social side and for doing teams and things later (great if they have a confidence crisis) I'd have thought it would be nice for her. Depends whether you want to sacrifice a weekend from her current career - and the money of course.
 
It is such a good idea to join. She will have rallies to go to, be taught stable management, have a wonderful time. She can also do her achievement badges and PC tests. It is also a place to make lotrs of pony mad friends.
 
I LOVEEE pony club :) (Even at 16 years old!) I have made so many friends through it and my confidence has increased vastly since I started and I have done so many things I would never have dreamed of doing before, Ive gone from riding 12.2hh round a 65cm and being petrified to now jumping 1.10 on 15.3hh ex racer all thanks to PC giving me so much encouragement and confidence
 
I'm a PC fan too. My daughter joined at about 6 - she's now 11. You may find your daughter is more competant than some of the other minis - although that will hugely depend on the area you live in. But my daughter went in as a competant mini too and had a massively good time.

In many areas there is more than one PC to choose from and it is worth taking some time to make that choice. Talk to other local riders and find out which one they go to. Ring up the DC or the secretary and talk to them. Have a look at the web site and find out what sort of rallies are going on and what they cost. Try and chat to some other mums of ones a similar age (the DC or secretary should be able to put you in touch.)

Some PCs are massively competative and feild sucessful teams to pretty much everywhere. Some PCs focus more on the social side, some more on training etc etc. Some have thier own feilds, some hire facilities. Some have free rallies (ours are), some cost.

In my view at 6 you don't really want a hyper competative PC. The ponies tend to be flashier and the competative spirit brings out the absolute worst in PC Mums. Training is super useful and you can do loads with the PC B test and upward - although that is a long way off from 6.

Just to give you and idea of what sort of non riding lesson stuff can go on our members have been up to (or will be shortly) this summer....

Tent Pegging (the art of spearing a tend peg in the ground with a lance at the gallop)
Polo Tasters
Visit to a Feed Factory (freebies...yum!)
Beech ride
Fancy dress sponsored ride.
PC Mock hunt.
Tetrathlons (Run, ride, swim shoot - not necessarily in that order.)
PC Quiz / pizza nights

And camp of course! And the usual round of competitions.

In my view PC is one of the best horsey educations - and fun times! - you can have on a horse under 16! Good luck.

PS. If you're in Surrey PM me and I can give you the low down on the local branches!
 
Divasmum said:
It is such a good idea to join. She will have rallies to go to, be taught stable management, have a wonderful time. She can also do her achievement badges and PC tests. It is also a place to make lotrs of pony mad friends.
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these are all the reasons i would like my son to join PC but i cant stand the mums!! some are ok but most are not! and i cant stand the way they buy a horse to do a job and will buy it today sell it tommorrow if it dont do that job! its an animal not a machine! and the way the kids think the same gadget that thier little mate has put on there pony will help theirs too when really neither pony needs the gadget! it drives me mad!
 
Pony club mums- I think there a myth, we dont have any in ours!!! everyone is friendly not over pushy and we all have a BRILLIANT time :) Camp is the best evvvvvver, Im still going and I will be 19 next year :):D
 
potty_4_piebalds said:
these are all the reasons i would like my son to join PC but i cant stand the mums!! some are ok but most are not! and i cant stand the way they buy a horse to do a job and will buy it today sell it tommorrow if it dont do that job! its an animal not a machine! and the way the kids think the same gadget that thier little mate has put on there pony will help theirs too when really neither pony needs the gadget! it drives me mad!
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and all the ponies have been rotated around our pony club- no one can bear seeing them go so they get handed down and everyone is so generous- when my horse was lame a couple of years ago I had lots of offers to borrow horses, then my friend hacked his horse out the morning before camp and she fell in a ditch and on box rest, so a pony club mum turned up with her dressage horse for him! you need to join a lovely pc like ours ;)
 
Yer its really hard, i dont want to turn it into some thing really expensive as shes already competing in showing and getting placed and showjumping and pretty much winning, not at massivily high levels but its about the confidence.
Her actual stable skills are pretty good, i groom so i insist on it, she mucks and lays her own stables makes her feeds and grooms him herself, shes very confident around them on the ground but also knows she cant approach every horse like she can her bombproof 11.2. She can put her saddle on herself and her bridle with a bit of help. I was worried if she joined a group of children her own age they probaly wouldnt be doing the same as she is and this may put her back if she was going through stuff she been doing for a while she may get bored!!
I do like the idea of pc camp although ive researched my area and theres actually quite a few places that do residential/ non residential camps at there facilities without having to be a member and thats not based on ages but abilitles, so altough shell only be 7 next year she would be allowd to stay (at pc she wouldnt) and the riding group she would be in would be the level she was at not her age group.
A few people have told me bisley is a good one this is local to us and there is a girl at the yard im at who goes there apparently over half there members are minis as ive been told some dont even hold mini camp cos of limited numbers.
Ive got till January to decide so im just weighing my options really!
 
defo go for the pony club. they are awesome fun, a really good learning experience for littlies especially. they get to do loads of learning in a fun way with kids of their own age. plus you'd be able to watch and take plenty of pics instead of having to teach her and then not have the opportunity to photograph! The other thing is that imo, its good for everyone to be taught by more than one person, sometimes just saying something in a different way helps to get the message across.
 
:confused:

Zoe can you sort your siggy out. It's over one and a half screens tall!


Putting your daughter in pony club as an additional activity won't hold her back at all, ok she may be the best in her group - but it's a fair bet she won't be best at absolutely everything. It's more for the social side of things in your daughter's case I guess and to give her an opportunity of teams etc later.

Also I'm slightly stunned to find there are places which will take such a young child on a residential camp - unless they are offering riding as an additional activity to, say, rock climbing and archery etc. Also although they say they group children in terms of ability if your child is riding at average 10yo standard she's not necessarily going to have a good time mixing with a group of children aged 10 to perhaps 12 for the newer riders so I suspect they actually wouldn't put her in that group. However, it not local to me so I don't know what exactly it is that is organised.

Anyway, my bit is that pc is good social fun for children:)
 
I would definitely go for the Pony Club! :) Teaches you loads, you meet horsey people, can get discounts on memberships to other associations, can join teams, have fun at rallies, earn badges and achievement levels, learn some proper 'classical equitation'.. I love being a member of the Pony Club! Only wish I'd joined earlier, only been a member for a year and a half! xx
 
I think that it is a great idea, I joined when I was 10, and I had made a whole load of friends of all different ages there, and i had begin jumping for the first time in my life, loads of people think that Pony Club is for really posh people, and admittedly, a few of the mum's may be, but it really isnt, and it isnt that expensive, its only about £60 to join then rallys/lessons are only about £6 each, where as at a normal riding school nowadays they are like £20, you also get to try out a load of different activities, like mounted games, and polo-cross :) xx
 
give it a try ive learnde so much from mine and am already loving it and ive only been to 3 rallies :) im sure there will be loads of 6 yr olds there there seem to be millions of them at ours :p
 
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