Riding club or Pony club??

[jozzie789]

Im 17 and in the pony club at the moment, but im really not enjoying it, find the tution really bad and find some of the people very clicky (and unless your in their gang your not in the team kind of thing)..

Just wanted to know peoples view on riding clubs? i enjoy a bit of everything, mainly eventing. what heights are the area? and what is the tution like? ecttt! any info would be greats, thanks!

 

[Magicmillbrook]

My daughter always did Pony Club and loved it. At 17 she found that the happy hackers of her age have dissapeared and only the very competetive kids were left, these also tended to be the 'in crowd' horse radiers rather than the hairy pony riders so she has decided to stick to just RC. Our RC is great, a good mix of fun and competition with a variety of ages.

 

[RunToEarth]

I think riding club caters for a much larger age group. I was in pony club up until I was 15, when I stopped doing mounted games and the team showjumping seemed tedius.
I think it depends largely on what you want to do with your horse. My mum is in riding club because she enjoys sponsored rides and the team dressage they do. I'm not in either, I decided I got more out of training sessions when I was alone or shared with one friend, I affiliated BSJA, and am a full paid member of my hunt- because I thought it was a better way to spend my money.
I have nothing to do with pony club now, I see my old games mates out hunting and sometimes at shows but I think pony club is very much a younger thing, unless you get big in the junior teams.
Riding club is much more fun, I still do their shows and made a lot of friends from it I still compete with now, if I wasn't moving to uni in October I would still be with my riding club.

 

[DuckToller]

At your age I would probably go for Riding Club. We have had a fab time in our PC and my daughter is only 15 so still enjoying it. But I can see a time coming when she is one of the only older ones left and we have already joined a local riding club so that we have the option. It's good because instead of being put in a group for tuition, we tick the height we want to do - much more sensible for older ones.

I think that alot of PCs lose their older teenagers for various reasons - cliquey in-crowds, always the same ones in teams - and also sometimes the instructors and committee members tend to treat them as children rather than young adults and are keen to slap them down into their 'place' (not all I suspect, but quite a few!). So it sounds like time for you to move on. Check out all your options - we have 3 RCs round us, you can join more than one but can only represent one at the Area competitions so chose wisely - some are more dressage based, some have very keen eventers etc.

 

[L00bey]

I'm in PC i'm 16 and i love it

I'm not in any team nd have only doen it 2 years but I still have loads of friends in my branch who have been doing it since they were 3 or whatever. Maybe I'm just an odd exception who has very little to do with my pc (except the odd rally or lesson and then camp) but i still know all the instructors (vice versa) and most the people who do pc every weekend. Also my pc has a real range of the younger ones to the 16-25 year olds who i have made good friends with in the 2 years i have done pc.