From Olympic medal winners to grassroots eventers, a huge number of UK riders started their equestrian lives at the Pony Club.
While getting into the equine world can require you to buy a horse and horsebox and arrange horsebox insurance, the Pony Club offers a great way to try it out before making the investment.
Read on to find out all you need to know about this fantastic organisation.
Founded in England in 1929 this international voluntary youth organisation is a charity with around 345 branches and 480 centres in the UK alone.
Worldwide the Pony Club has a presence in 27 countries and over 110,000 members – giving it a hugely important role in the lives of young riders around the world.
The Pony Club has three stated purposes:
If you visit the Pony Club website you’ll find a search facility into which you can type your postcode to find your closest branch or centre. There’s bound to be one near you.
Membership is open to anyone under 25 no matter what their riding ability and it’s easy to join through their website. There are several different levels of membership depending on whether or not you own or have access to a horse or pony.
Membership is on a rolling basis for both branches and centres, so you always get 12 months from the date you join.
For those with access to a horse there are two different ways to join:
For those without access to a horse there are two different ways to join:
There are additional fees for training and competitions, but these are kept to a minimum.
For those transporting horses to Pony Club events remember you’ll need not only horse insurance for your equine friend but also horsebox insurance for your transport.
As well as the yearly high point that is Pony Club Camp and regular Pony Club training rallies, the charity provides riders of all levels with training events and competitions throughout the year. They include the following:
The Pony Club also runs a host of other competitions including the Tetrathlon Championships, the Polo Championship, the Grassroots Regional Championships, the National Quiz and the Blue Cross Care Competition.
There are a huge range of benefits for young riders to joining the Pony Club such as:
Whatever exciting event or competition you go to with your four-legged companion, the specialist team at Equesure will help you find the right insurance cover for both your horse and transport.
With over 60 years of combined experience in the equine insurance market, our team can find cover for many models of horsebox. From Equi-Trek to Empire, Ifor Williams to Alexanders and many more.
Whether Comprehensive, Third Party, Fire and Theft or Third Party Only, obtaining insurance through us is simple and straightforward and can give you a range of benefits including:
Equesure can also arrange dedicated horse insurance for your equine companion and horse rider insurance to protect yourself and others while out riding.
Get a horsebox insurance quote today.
Policy benefits and features offered may very between insurance schemes or cover selected and are subject to underwriting criteria. Information contained within this article is accurate at the time of publishing but may be subject to change.
Once again I threw Arlo in at the deep end, affiliating him purely for the Arena UK second round show, and once again he pulled it out the bag. How lucky am I to have such a wonderful little horse? We haven’t really competed this year. I don’t really compete over the winter, and also my horsebox was away for repairs up until the beginning of June, so I had no transport even if I’d wanted to.
With the dry ground we don’t seem to be having much luck with shoes, as little madam managed to pull both her front shoes off within 12 hours the other day! We entered the arena with two shoes on for a schooling session and left it with one missing (took about an hour to find it). Then that afternoon, as I went to put some hoof ointment on, I looked down and had to double take, thinking I was looking at the wrong hoof. But, no, the other shoe was missing too.
After having a long wait and some lunch at the onsite café, it was time to get ready for the Joan Wolfe Overall Supreme Shetland Pony Championship. I got changed out of my usual showing outfit into black trousers and a maroon top with white spots, as you are expected to be a bit more “bling” in the evening.
We were all set to go for our next outing, and were super excited. That was until I heard the dreaded clunk of a loose shoe! I checked it over, praying it wasn’t too loose, but, nope, it was going to need a refit.