Correction: Only one presidential modification regarding pony conformation classes was issued in 2024, according to the U.S. Equestrian Federation.

Pony hunter conformation classes will be held at premier- and national-rated horse shows this year, after a Jan. 20 U.S. Equestrian Federation presidential modification introduced by the U.S. Hunter Jumper Association was reversed this week. However, a separate Jan. 17 USEF presidential modification exempting the Winter Equestrian Festival—underway in Wellington, Florida—from holding pony conformation classes will stand, and they will not be held there.

Last year, concerns stemming from holding pony conformation classes at WEF led to a USEF presidential modification for the 2024 season, exempting WEF from holding conformation classes.

Presidential modifications generally only last one year, and the 2024 modification reportedly instructed stakeholders within the USHJA to discuss the role of the conformation class at some point last year and come up with a recommendation for a permanent rule change proposal. However, former USHJA President Mary Knowlton said she never received a copy of the document. USEF declined to provide it to the Chronicle.

According Britt McCormick, who became president of USHJA last April, a discussion about changes to pony conformation classes never happened.

“I’m not sure why, because I wasn’t in charge back then,” he said.

Protest At The In-Gate

Fast forward to the 2025 season, and the 2024 presidential modification exempting WEF from pony conformation classes had expired. According to pony trainer Ali Sweetnam, the special circumstances of the Winter Equestrian Festival prompted exhibitors to push for a way to not hold conformation classes, which are judged 75% on performance over fences and 25% on conformation, at that venue. At WEF, the pony divisions have large classes that are often run “California split,” meaning that 20 ponies must return to the ring at the end of the class and stand head-to-tail while judges evaluate their conformation.

“That takes at least 10 minutes per section, times that by six sections, and that’s an extra hour on the day, which they don’t have,” she said.

With many ponies stabled off property at that show—sometimes a distance off property—presenting them for the conformation judging means either waiting around the ring for hours or walking them back to the ring long after they competed, she noted.

“Everything is just so spread out [at WEF], and everything’s so busy,” Sweetnam said, adding that it wasn’t laziness on the part of the trainers or staff. “With the sheer amount of classes offered at the show and whatnot, it becomes a staffing issue and an everybody issue.”

It isn’t good horsemanship to have ponies up at the ring for hours waiting to stand for conformation, she said, nor is pulling them from their stalls to hike back and forth from distant barns. The issue is unique to WEF, Sweetnam said, and in her opinion, is not a referendum on conformation classes or model classes for ponies more generally.

“It’s only WEF,” she said, noting she pushed for standalone model classes at the Traverse City (Michigan) circuit. “For me, I think we should have to do it everywhere else. … When there’s time, I think it’s great for the kids to handle the ponies and learn how to stand them up and the horsemanship part of it. It’s just [that] WEF is a different beast.”

During the first week of WEF, WEF 0, the pony conformation class was held as normal. But during WEF 1, pony trainers talked and decided to stage a protest of sorts.

“So we all came together and thought, ‘There’s no way [we can stand for conformation],’ ” Sweetnam said. “In talking to stewards and show managers and whatnot, asking if there were any repercussions for them, is anybody going to get in major trouble if we all as exhibitors decided not to go in for conformation at all, [and] what would happen? As far as anybody could research and see, nothing; the class would be called as scored, and conformation didn’t have to happen.”

So none of the ponies returned to stand for conformation in any of the pony hunter conformation classes during WEF 1, and the classes were pinned based on performance results alone. Show manager David Burton then submitted a request for a presidential modification to hold no pony conformation classes at WEF for 2025, which was approved Jan. 17. But to McCormick, that was unfair.

“My feeling was that if you do one thing for one competition, it is an unfair playing field if you don’t do it for all competitions,” said McCormick, who was in Wellington immediately after WEF 1 for the USHJA East Coast Hunter Forum. “Some people disagree, and that’s fine, but that’s how I looked at it. At the request of the federation, we submitted a presidential modification for the whole country, because they asked me to do that so we could get the conversation started.”

That presidential modification, approved Jan. 20, removed conformation from the division everywhere for 2025 and 2026, suggesting that a rule change could be discussed and formulated within that time and enacted for the 2027 season. The relevant rule still allows for model classes to be held at management’s discretion, and many managers elect not to hold them.

McCormick didn’t like the idea of requiring ponies to stand for conformation at some premier and national shows but not others.

“To me, if you have ponies required to stand and maybe get moved back, then they go to another competition, and they’re not forced to stand and they don’t get moved back, that’s not a level playing field,” he said.

The Pony World Responds

The pony community largely felt removing all conformation classes because WEF didn’t want them was akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Trainer Robin Greenwood, who serves as vice chair of the USHJA Pony Task Force, said that the conformation component and model classes are an important component of the division for young equestrians for learning horsemanship.

“They get their hands on the pony, and they’re learning a skill,” she said. “They’re learning the way to properly handle the pony, to lead it, to jog it, to stand it up and make it stand still and be responsive to you giving it appropriate cues.”

“I strongly believe that the horse shows should not be defining the way we run classes in specific divisions.”

Robin Greenwood

The 2023 and 2024 USEF Leading Pony Hunter Breeding Breeder Wendy Arndt, who also trains performance ponies, pointed out that U.S. pony breeders want conformation to count.

“I want for the effort I made and investment I made to go out there and be recognized and be seen,” said Arndt, Ridge Spring, South Carolina. “Not just from an ego perspective. It’s about producing the kind of quality that you would be excited to stand up for conformation if you were a kid. Because it’s part of the class, it’s always been part of the class.”

Greenwood was disappointed in how the Jan. 20 presidential modification came about.

“I strongly believe that the horse shows should not be defining the way we run classes in specific divisions,” she said.

After USHJA released an announcement Feb. 3 detailing the Jan. 20 presidential modification, it was flooded with emails weighing in on the change—and McCormick’s phone started ringing off the hook. The USHJA Pony Task Force met three times in one week to discuss the Jan. 20 presidential modification and the role of conformation in the pony hunter division, with the group concluding it wanted conformation judging to be included at premier and national shows, and that it wanted that presidential modification rescinded. It sent its recommendations to the USHJA board, which quickly met and agreed to petition the USEF to reverse the Jan. 20 presidential modification removing pony conformation classes from the Rule Book. USEF President Tom O’Mara agreed and rescinded that presidential modification.

The Making Of A Presidential Modification

O’Mara was impressed with the speed and efficiency of the process of reversing the presidential modification.

“You don’t want to swing and miss, but sometimes you do,” he said. “The decision at first was believed to be the right decision at that point in time. Then, sure enough, enough people—not just one group of people or one end of the spectrum—got vocal one way or the other. It was all very reasonable conversation.”

McCormick said the reversal was a result of USHJA listening to its constituents.

“When I went to USHJA board yesterday, I said, it’s never too late to do the right thing,” he said. “We’re hearing from our membership and our constituents that they want the sport to look this way, and they’re willing to do the work to make sure in the future we get the rule change proposals in place then that’s what I think they should do. Obviously Tom and I agreed on that. That’s how we ended up where we are.

“To me the wheels of governance are actually working smooth as ever, and we’re going to get to the right answer faster than we used to,” he said.

For the 2025 season, conformation classes must now be held at premier and national shows, and they may be held at regional shows. The Jan. 17 presidential modification still stands, exempting WEF from holding the classes.

“The reversal of this modification allows for a more permanent rule change proposal process to be discussed, socialized, researched and enacted for 2026 and beyond,” McCormick said in a Feb. 12 press release.

O’Mara said that presidential modifications tend to fall, broadly, into three main categories: individuals making requests around device issues that affect a horse and rider’s safety, such as requests for a horses with eye problems to wear goggles; organizers making requests around competitions, such as if a venue suffered damage due to a storm and an organizer wanted to be allowed to apply to move to a different venue in a short period of time; and occasionally for an urgent safety issue or fair playing field issue that needs to be addressed, often while a relevant rule change is going through the process.

According to Vicki Lowell, USEF’s chief marketing and content officer, the Jan. 17 WEF-specific presidential modification was pitched as a safety issue.

“As Britt is saying, [this has to do with] the unique aspects of the WEF venue, and [the rings where the ponies compete] being separate from the other rings, and trainers having to go back and forth to other rings and there being so many ponies,” she said.