We’re big advocates for enrolling young equestrians in the USPC, or United States Pony Club. Whenever we meet a new, teenage rider we immediately recommend they consider joining the USPC.
There are numerous reasons why we’re so pro-Pony Club, which we’ll talk about below.
First up is that it teaches the young equestrian about horsemanship. In fact, there is a big emphasis on the care of the horse, itself. Taking it a step further, USPC teaches all other aspects about horses including the various disciplines available to equestrians with a proven curriculum and good instructors.
Pony Club Fills an Instruction Gap
Believe it or not, there is a lot of bad horse instruction out there. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that most of today’s horse instruction is not good.
Much of it is done by instructors who took some lessons when they were younger and need to make a few extra bucks on the side.
Most of these “instructors” aren’t qualified to teach by any standards and haven’t done anything outside of taking lessons from another unqualified “instructor” when they were younger. It’s possible that they did some hunter/jumper shows when they were younger and placed well, inflating their ego about what a good equestrian is.
It may come as a surprise, but jumping isn’t the first thing you should be doing with a horse. None of these people teach how to care for the horse, how and why horses can get hurt, how the horse moves, how different tack affects the horse differently, etc.
Thus, the result is a neverending supply of unqualified instructors who haven’t the slightest idea how to teach, what they’re teaching, or anything outside getting over the jump. And even that part, getting over the jump, isn’t always done right.
In fact, we saw one riding instructor telling a student (that just happened to be her own daughter) to jump a horse that had just broken his leg after he fell in the trailer on the ride to the show. Granted, she didn’t know the horse’s leg was broken, but we could all tell that he was off.
That was extremely dangerous for both the mount and the rider and they should have at least had the horse checked out by an onsite vet.
I digress.
The problem gets worse and worse as time goes on, and equestrians get further from what it means to be a good riding instructor with each passing generation.
The above-mentioned riding “instructor” has a daughter who will also likely grow up and follow in her mom’s footsteps of not knowing the proper way of doing things.
Thankfully, there is the Pony Club which fills an enormous gap in proper riding instruction.
What is The Role of Pony Club?
The role of the pony club is to teach the young equestrian proper horsemanship, how to properly ride a horse, and help the equestrian prove knowledge with certification tests.
They have a curriculum that has been researched and taught by top equestrians from around the globe and have been teaching it since its inception.
By the way, the USPC was started back in 1954, and is based on the British Pony Club, which started all the way back in 1929.
They have a solid idea of what works, and you can tell when you begin to take lessons with them.
Making matters even better is that they have strict requirements to level up with each certification. Trust me when I say that the tests are not easy. They’re designed to make the equestrian prove their knowledge, and the kids aren’t allowed to level up in jumping or flat until they’ve leveled up in horsemanship.
This means that they teach the care of the horse before jumping. My daughter is currently studying for her C-1 test, as our gelding thoroughbred recovers from his farrier incident.
She’s taken D-3, D-2, and D-1 successfully. The tests were hard. They were stressful. But, at the end of the day, she made it through and can say something that most equestrians cannot, which is that she’s doing it the right way.
Pony Club Instructors
Each instructor that the Pony Club allows to teach will be a highly qualified individual in their chosen discipline. When I say discipline, I mean dressage, jumping, etc.
The Pony Club will only bring in people who know what they’re talking about to eradicate the risk of false teaching. These are people who’ve proven themselves, most of them are Pony Clubers themselves.
When you enroll in your local chapter, you get instant access to these people. What ends up happening is that you’ll take group lessons from these people, many of whom are world-class athletes in their discipline.
Even better, many of them also teach the Pony Club’s curriculum in a private setting and will take on new students who are active in a chapter.
By the way, going to meetings for a couple of years and taking lessons from these people is how we realized that our other instructors didn’t really know what they were talking about. We now use an instructor who is not only certified at the highest level but also competed at the highest level in eventing.
Pony Club VS Other Instructors
There is a night and day difference between an instructor who is knowledgeable and one who isn’t. I don’t intend to say that Pony Club is the only way, because that’s not true. There are other organizations that are good with a solid curriculum, as well as those developed in the various horse colleges.
However, as far as teaching young equestrians goes, in my humble opinion, USPC is the best there is.
When you join your local Pony Club chapter you’ll get access to the list of approved instructors. These are folks who are dedicated to teaching the approved curriculum, and because they stick to the curriculum, you know you’re learning things that are proven concepts.
The curriculum is one of the best things about taking lessons from one of the approved instructors. Instead of the fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants mentality that other people have, there are set standards that each lesson is designed to take the rider to.
In the end, once the instructor and student feel ready, a test is administered, a certification is given and, if passed, the next level is embarked upon.
There is nothing like the feeling of moving up a level.
Many High-Level Riders are Pony Clubers
Because the USPC does such a great job at teaching folks about horses and how to ride them, many of the top-level riders all the way up to olympian level dressage and other disciplines, got their start in the USPC.
There are even more who ride at the top level but choose to not go to the Olympics. Instead, they compete in high-level eventing, dressage, and jumpers.
Pony Club Levels
No article about Pony Club is complete without a brief overview of the different levels of certifications.
There are essentially two main umbrellas of certification within the USPC: One is the local level and the other is the national level. Then under each umbrella are a host of certifications signifying different levels of horsemanship riding and management comprehension.
In order to move on to the national side of things, one must first go through the local level.
Local Pony Club levels are as follows:
- D-1 is the first level for beginners. To qualify here the rider must demonstrate basic ground and mounted skills. Everyone starts here.
- D-2 is the second stage of the beginner level and shows slightly more advanced skills than in D-1. Skills can be demonstrated with help. Also starting to understand basic horse care.
- D-3 is the final stage in the beginner level and is more independent, showcasing skills without help. A more advanced understanding of how to care for the horse also must be demonstrated.
- C-1 is the certification beginning to bridge beginner to intermediate. The rider shows more advanced knowledge of horse care, as well as being able to ride with greater control utilizing natural aids with rhythm. The rider begins to develop light contact as they ride more in harmony together.
- C-2 is the level at which the rider is fully considered to be intermediate. The rider understands horse management off the horse and has confidence and control while mounted. At this level, the seat is improved upon with better use of aids as they ride forward with balance and rhythm with light contact.
National Pony Club levels are:
- H-B covers unmounted horse management skills at an intermediate level. This is equivalent to a high school curriculum.
- H-HM/H/H-A covers a more advanced amount of horse care, as well as showing the ability to train horses on the ground, riding, and horse care to others. This is equivalent to a college curriculum.
- C-3 is the riding level getting the rider ready for advanced. This is the first national-level test and the first test where the rider must use a horse they’re not familiar with.
- B is the intermediate-advanced level where the rider is able to ride any experienced mount with confidence and control. They should be able to ride the horse without undoing any of his education.
- A is the advanced level that is the highest available certification for Pony Club members. At this level, the rider should be able to ride a horse with any amount of schooling, as well as able to train young horses or retrain them if necessary.
Pony Club Opens Doors
In addition to everything else we’ve spoken about to this point, I’d also like to say that being in the Pony Club opens doors. A local, highly respected trainer found out my daughter was in the USPC at the D-3 level and offered to take her under the wing.
She does barn chores and is an assistant in many ways to this lady.
I urge anyone who is remotely serious about horses to find or start a local chapter.