What did i miss out on by not going to "Pony Club"

edgedem

edgedem

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who went?
what did you actually do?
and being 21 and only just getting my horse.. what did i miss out on?
is it a fair priced and beneficial thing?

have a feeling sparks may fly.. :rolleyes:
 
I started riding at 5 (am now 31) started out on the riding school, helping out then my sister and I had a pony when i was about 7. Had several horses since then and worked at riding schools and livery yards.
I never went to PC but still had a very horsey lifestyle growing up :P
 
Learning to polish the soles of your shoes. Developing a slightly OCD approach to tack cleaning and turn out. Seriously I loved Pc and my daughter has had fun at it as well but you can rather get bogged down with the minutiae.
 
I never went either. Some of the stories i've heard I would have hated it!

To be fair, *Hides behind the sofa* You can probably guess who went by the way people post on here :eek: :p :D Love you all really xx
 
Daughter says PC camp - she's 19 and claims it was the best week of her year, every year. She went this year and has only missed one year since she was 8.

14 yr old son also enjoyed his first camp this year - though I think for different reasons than my daughter ;)
 
MrSpam said:
14 yr old son also enjoyed his first camp this year - though I think for different reasons than my daughter ;)
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Ha ha, I bet!

Camp was and still is the best week of the year - my son has gone for the last five years and as a junior I got to go too - hurrah!

Next year he'll be going to senior camp and I'll be sulking at home :(
 
legaldancer said:
Ha ha, I bet!

Camp was and still is the best week of the year - my son has gone for the last five years and as a junior I got to go too - hurrah!

Next year he'll be going to senior camp and I'll be sulking at home :(
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Ponies make a teenage boy very attractive :rolleyes:

Come and help with our camp - it's definitely easier than being at home.
 
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I joined at 18 and still love it at 21 :D

I'm not OCD about tack cleaning although I did win turnout at camp this year but thats more for my OCD plaiting but I was like that before PC, infact my saddle had red face paint on it........ (it only came off a few months later :o).

Its a laugh but it totally depends on which one you join, we have a great bunch of people and a fab instructor which makes it IMO. Value for money is great as we dont pay for rallies and get to use great facilities but again depends on which you join.

Oh and you can still join ;)
 
At 21 I *think* you can still join, then you can stay in it until you are 25. The Banwell PC are having their membership joining/renewal night tonight at Cleeve Cricket Club. Come along, we are a lovely PC and not at all like the horror stories (unlike our other local one which I attended from the age of 7 and it was a hideous experience!).
 
Over bearing parents on over priced ponies and precocious little girls bossed about by DC's who think they are equal only to God :D
 
Its many years since I was a member, but I still have the friends I made in the Pony Club. I was a member before camps were at posh places, when we rode outside in pouring rain and even had to hack to rallies!

My children both enjoyed being members, and as a family we had great days out at all sorts of events that we might never has been to otherwise.

So for me I have lovely memories of family days with our ponies/horses now my off spring are all grown up.
 
went a couple of times and was put off for life :( We had field kept ponies in nice thick winter coats (albeit minus a bit of mane) as kids but did have most of the mud brushed off them :D, no trailer we rode to the event and first thing we were told was 'your not really our sort, never mind dear' :eek: Most unwelcoming bunch of whatsits I have ever met. Did try a couple more times as my dad wanted to make sure it wasn't just one off rudeness on behalf of one selfish git but sadly it didn't get any better...

Rode my happy hacking pony to school, learnt my lessons from dad and grandmother both experienced horse owners from day born, furthered my knowledge with jobs from racing stables to holiday hacking and show centres alongside owning my own. Ok so not as shiny and comprehensive as PC but neither was it as pressured or as expensive.

Be nice to think things had changed from my first few experiences. Do they do anything for the under 5's??
 
i was part of the pony club for all of about a year and i only went to one show... didnt do camp or anything although from what i have been told by my cousin i would have hated it anyway! :o
 
I think the friendship more than anything- when you're a teenager and you ride, it can be quite an isolated hobby. In the PC, you get groups of people your age who ride and will be facing the same challenges as you do, and you get to have a blast with it. My sister joined when she was 6, about to turn 7. She's now 18, has a big group of friends and is beginning to teach in her branch. She's got some amazing job opportunities (she nannies out hunting, and rides ponies in the week to keep them fit/ ticking over as well as the teaching) and is still a keen member.

When we started PC, we were clueless as a family. Now, my mum runs ODEs and sounds like she was bought up with horses. It is a bit anal at times- even my sister, the world's biggest stickler for correct and tidy turnout, finds some things a bit too much. But you have to grin and play along and you end up loving it.

The children/ teenagers who don't like it tend not to like instruction, or being told that they're wrong I've found... Or in fact any criticism at all! ;)
 
I never went, mainly because my parents never got involved beyond money, so I couldn't get there, & rallies too far to hack. But I'm not sure I missed out too much, in terms of ponies my childhood was pretty good tbh. I would like my 7yr old to join, mainly to meet other horsey kids. The ones she knows her age are either weekly rs riders, or just potter about, the others she knows who are from a horsey background are either younger or older. However currently got no transport, hacking would be 2hrs each way (unless we went through the town centre when it would be an hour). So will be a couple of years till she joins.
 
I went once as a child but had no clue about pony club methods having learnt at a riding school which did things differently. Like another poster we had field kept ponies and just felt like I had walked into another world and a rather unfriendly one so was never going to go back. It seems daft to have been put off as it would have been an opportunity to learn a lot but as a kid I just felt out of place.
 
If you want one word that sums up PC for me, it would be camaraderie.

There are currently around 360 branches in the PC, and they are all as different as 360 junior schools might be.

And I generally find that they are only as good as the people running them, so if the DC/committee are rude or cliquey, then the branch will be, and if the DC is open-minded and friendly, chances are the rest of the committee will be like-minded, and it will be a fun branch to belong to.

I have long thought that every branch should be 'Offsteded" once every two years, and a report published so people had the chance to choose their branch before they joined and some of the incompetent and or rude people you encounter could be shoved sideways or out altogether!

I belonged to the most dreadful sub branch of a fairly useless main branch of PC when I was a teenager, and still managed to have great fun, learn a huge amount and come back for more.

But on balance, there is more good than bad!
 
I guess Pony Club branches are all different, some were very 'county' and others like the branch I and my children belonged to was started to provide support and information to children whose parents were not horsey and to help improve the life of their ponies - There are other clubs that fullfill the same function, but any way that children can learn how to care for their ponies properly has to be a good thing.
 
I never went,but my girls do.They describe camp as the best week of their lives.The youngest is not a joiner,refused to go to Brownies and is reluctant to even speak in front of people that she doesn't know,but after a morning at camp,was running off with her new friends,was the first to shout out answers and rode 5 different ponies in one week.

I was a bit wary because I'd heard stories that PC was snobby and if you hadn't spent ££££'s on a pony,you'd be ostracised.Nothing could have been further from the truth,we've met some lovely people there and made some good friends.
 
My children joined pony club, and I think it was the best thing they could ever have done.
We found it a bit clicky at first, but I think thats the same with most groups. (the mothers, not the kids) My children go to mounted games, which I think really teaches them how to ride. And at only £4 for 1 1/2 hours training, I don't think you could get that anywhere else.
Pony camp is amazing! Teaching pony/horse care, riding in various disciplines, and best of all teaches children independence, discipline, and how to have fun in a safe environment.

We are a non horsey family with cheap ponies, and we still got to the Pony Club Championships :D
 
I learned so much about tack , turnout and horse care and developed some ocd habits along the way:D Sadly they couldn't improve my rubbish riding or make me brave despite many attempts but then I was a wimpy kid.
 
My daughter loved it. Did the open ht team and sj team from the age of 12 .Got her A test. Left at 21 but rejoined when they put the age up to 25 when she was 23. She made loads of friends and now teaches at senior camp and organises mini camp which her daughter now goes to.
I think its a great place for children and their ponies
 
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