PrintThe organization has a renewed focus on the basics.
The past few years have brought many innovative changes to what some might consider a very traditional organization, the U.S. Pony Club.
The upper-level rating system has been revamped and now includes the option for members to rate in show jumping- and dressage-focused tracks. The age limit for membership has been increased to 25 from 21.
USPC Riding Centers have been operational for two years and are allowing kids without their own steeds the chance to experience Pony Club. The rules and attitude governing horse management—particularly as it’s addressed in the rally atmosphere—have been simplified and redirected.
In keeping with this forward-thinking approach to addressing the needs of its membership and having developed what they hope will be solutions for some of the concerns of older, upper-level members, now the USPC is focusing more closely on the lower-level members who constitute the vast majority of the organization.
At the USPC Annual Meeting, held Jan. 23-27 in Boston, Mass., USPC officials introduced the “Back to the Barn” initiative. BTTB is intended to encourage and help clubs to find ways to make Pony Club work for their individual circumstances and the growing issues facing the horse world.
“At the national level, 80 percent of our time is spent on 20 percent of our membership—those rated C-3 and above. We cannot continue to overlook our Ds,” said USPC President Art Kramer, explaining the need to help clubs establish better tools and curriculum for educating their less-experienced members.
“What’s new for 2008? How about no new programs, no reinventing the wheel? Let’s grease the cogs and make what we have more user-friendly for our membership.”
In conjunction with their newly implemented membership database, which now enables statistical history to be maintained on members—such as dates and outcomes of rating and rally participation—USPC officials plan to rework the somewhat cumbersome www.ponyclub.org website, including capabilities for online, paperless form submission in 2008.
BTTB
With 85 percent of USPC’s membership comprised of riders rated C-2 and lower, the organization has found that they’re losing members from their core group—between the ages of 11 and 14.
“There have been a lot of changes in the last few years, and for a lot of [District Commissioners and Regional Supervisors] it’s been kind of like an earthquake,” said Christie Campbell, the D-1 to C-2 program chairperson of the USPC Instruction Council. “We’ve focused a lot on the upper-level ratings, and we need to bring the lower levels into the new world as well.”
Although the acronym is new, the concepts it represents aren’t all that different. Essentially, BTTB is an effort to help and encourage clubs to develop a program for these members that is fun and works for the families and kids in the club, while still reflecting the mission of USPC.
“Today’s club is small and suburban, rather than rural, with horses boarded out. More D.C.s and other parents are not horsemen,” said Campbell, explaining that recently there has been a striking decrease in practical horse management skills in some Pony Clubbers, who have never had to clean a stall, let alone care for their horse by themselves. “The 2006 and 2007 championships underscored that some kids are not learning at home, and testing shows the same.”
