In the Midwest, and in an ever-increasing area outside the region, the utterance of the word “Munchkin” doesn’t evoke images of tasty donut holes or Lollipop Guild members. Instead, it causes mounted games fans to think of a 13.2-hand, bay mare who’s become a legend in her own time.

Munchkin has competed in every U.S. Pony Club Games Championship since 1998, with members of three different families. During that seven years, she’s also been ridden by countless other children in lessons, clinics and try-outs, and just last month the 23-year-old mare helped her current rider, Alyson Raynor, and her team win the USPC’s Prince Phillip Cup Invitational Championship, held during the Rolex Kentucky Three-Day Event, on April 29-30, in Lexington.

Munchkin, a Welsh-Hackney cross, started her career as a hunter pony on the A-rated circuit with Denise Bruno’s Pony Club family. After the elder Bruno daughter outgrew her, she’d taken to the role of pasture ornament. But in 1997, Beth Lough, of Crawfordsville, Ind., was searching for a new eventing mount for her 9-year-old son, Alex, whose pony was just too strong for him.

His dressage trainer knew of a nice little jumper with a good attitude who wasn’t doing much and might fit the bill. “We only borrowed Munchkin at first because their family was very attached to her,” said Beth. “She’d been hanging out in the pasture and was incredibly fat!”

The pony apparently had already earned a bit of a following, though, as several people recognized her at Alex’s first schooling show. “Some kids came by and asked, ‘Is that Munchkin? It can’t be; it doesn’t look like she’s pregnant!’ ” recalled Beth with a chuckle.

Although Munchkin was also a rather strong, forward pony–she earned the nickname “Turbo Pony” at their first Pony Club camp together–she and Alex soon formed a partnership. The two joined forces to earn an Indiana Combined Training Association’s beginner novice championship, later schooling through training level, and dabbled in polocrosse before finding their true calling–mounted games.

Ironically, the Lough’s club–originally Bits N Blazes, now Halfhalt Pony Club–in Heartland Region, had no games experience whatsoever. “Beth told us they originally got interested in games from watching Traders Point [the Raynors’ club]. They took it back to their club and went nuts with it,” said Alyson Raynor’s mother, Sandy.

Beth and fellow Halfhalt mom Carol Bertilson are now major movers in the USPC national and international games infrastructure. The inspiration the Loughs took from Traders Point later came full circle, as their kids and their ponies have gone on to help and inspire games players from Traders Point and beyond.

A year after Alex began riding Munchkin, they competed in the 1998 championships. Since only a few kids in the region had begun to play, Alex, then 10, had to join the senior team they’d scraped to-gether. Alex admitted to doing all his games skills left-handed at that time because he didn’t think he could stop the gung-ho Munchkin without using his dominant right hand.

“She’d never run away with you, but she didn’t stop unless she really needed to. But when I started, I always felt comfortable on her,” said Alex. “She’d never played games before and I never had either–nobody in our club had. We all just learned it together. She was great from the beginning. She was never scared of anything. Now, she knows the games better than half the people who ride her.”

Over the next few years, the Lough children grew more and more taken with the sport and eventually sold their Thoroughbred eventing mounts to concentrate on games. Their club and region also expanded their involvement in the sport. As a result, Munchkin’s experience grew exponentially as Alex and then a widening circle of kids all rode her.

“She was used for international try-outs in 2000 and 2003, when we hosted kids from all over the country, and she’s always a part of the camps we host in Indiana,” explained Beth. “She was also used when the U.S. hosted the international games competition in 1998 and 2001. She was a favorite of the international kids.”

Molding Clay

Alex, who is now 6’1″ and 180 lbs. at age 17, quickly started to outgrow Munchkin, and he and his sister, Megan, began trading off on their ponies. Megan, who’d made the international games team in 2000, had gotten a project pony to work on and was using that pony for advanced-level games, so she began looking for a partner.

In 2001, Megan was instant messaging with friend and fellow games player Adrien Clay, of Peoria, Ill., about her quest for an advanced partner. Adrien suggested her older sister, Morgan, who was an accomplished rider, although inexperienced in games. The Loughs agreed to lend Munchkin to Morgan so the girls could form a team.

“Munchkin was the reason I was able to start games,” said Clay, now 21. “She’s an amazing pony. I wish everybody could have a pony like her, but I’m glad I got her!”

After less than a year of intense practice with the Loughs, Morgan partnered with Megan to qualify for the advanced championships in 2002, the same year Alex made the international games team. And they won.

“Munchkin knew what she was doing, and I managed to hang on!” joked Clay, a graduate H-A from the Heart of Illinois Pony Club in North Central Prairie Region.

Adrien took Munchkin to championships the following year on a team with Alex, while Megan and Morgan, on a new pony, returned to take second place in their division. “I was able to work on my own skills because she knew everything,” said Morgan. “Having a sure shot as your anchor–you can’t beat that. You always know that she’s going to perform.

“She doesn’t say ‘No.’ She’ll slow down a little when she gets tired, but when you kick her and say, ‘C’mon, honey, we’ve got to go,’ she goes,” continued Morgan, getting a little emotional at the memory.

“There are two races I’ll never forget, where I was the anchor and our team was a little behind. She’s not the fastest pony out there, but we went out two lengths behind and she caught two ponies she had no business catching. I know I sound like a little kid, but I can remember the wind blowing on my face and thinking, ‘Munchkin, I can’t believe you’re running this fast!’ “

The Legend

In 2004, Adrien made the international games team and Munchkin went back to the Loughs, who continued to let a number of kids learn the ropes on the experienced pony in lessons and clinics. Around that same time, Alyson Raynor, of Indianapolis, Ind., was looking for a new pony, as the lease was expiring on the pony she had been riding.

Aly and her sister, Stephanie, now 14 and 11, had gotten more and more involved with games since joining the Traders Point Pony Club, but they had yet to form a solid team with which they could go to championships. Beth, seeing an opportunity for Munchkin to find a great new home with two younger, smaller children, told Sandy Raynor she’d be willing to sell Munchkin to them.

“When I told Aly, she said, ‘Oh wow–Munchkin’s a legend!’ ” recalled Sandy.

After Sandy expressed her concern about the pony’s advancing years, Beth agreed that it was a consideration, but explained the potential benefits of a pony like Munchkin. “She told me that by having an experienced pony that knows the games and knows what she needs to do, the kids will develop by leaps and bounds,” said Sandy. “She was 100-percent right.”

There was a few-month learning curve for Aly, when things weren’t going as smoothly as she’d hoped.

“She was fast, and I wasn’t nearly as good as she was. She’d hesitate for a couple of seconds for you to do your skill and then go,” explained Aly. “She’d get frustrated with me, and I would get frustrated with her, but we just clicked at championships last year and played awesome!

“Even if she isn’t feeling great, she’ll give 110 percent on the field. She’s always there with me, always taking care of me,” added Aly. “For example, she doesn’t get along with my sister’s pony very well, but she’ll do a pass off with him just like they’re best friends when were out there.”

With Aly speeding up her own playing, the two became true partners. Their “Psychos” team finished second to the “Love Bugs,” an older team from Maryland Region on larger, faster ponies, by only .75 point at the USPC Championships last August.

The top six junior games team from championships qualify to compete in the Prince Phillip Invitational, so a rematch was in the works even before championships had concluded.

“Our team gets along really well; we’re all best friends,” said Aly of her cohorts: sister Stephie, captain Catherine Forman, Jennifer Porter and Jessica Reed. “Whenever anybody gets frustrated, we’re able to chill them out right away.”

After the first round of Prince Philip competition, the Psychos led by 2 points over the Love Bugs, and they widened their lead to 11 points after the second session that day. They kept their nerves at bay that evening and returned for the final round the following morning and a decisive victory.

In their short time together, Munchkin’s already produced quite the resume of experiences for Aly. The two have foxhunted together, and Aly has helped a younger Pony Clubber, whose pony went lame, practice on her. “My grandma rode her, too! She hadn’t ridden for 40 years, and Munchkin was just an angel. She trotted around like this pokey pony–you’d never think she was the same pony galloping up and down the games field!” said Aly.

Producing a videotape for a school project on medieval times, Aly and a friend, who’d only ridden a handful of times, outfitted Munchkin and Stephie’s pony with foil-armored tack. “I rode my sister’s pony and my friend rode Munchkin, and we jousted!” she said. “We got 100 percent plus extra
credit!”

Munchkin has had a huge impact on the lives of so many children, and it isn’t an effect that is easily forgotten. “I’ve improved so much because I’ve been able to ride her,” said Aly. “She was always on T-shirts and everywhere–she was this famous games pony. I always thought she was the best, and now I know she is.”

“You just look at her, and she’s so sweet and cute, you just fall in love with her,” said Morgan. “And after everything she teaches you, you just love her forever.”

“Munchkin helps everybody learn to play games and gives them a good, solid foundation,” said Alex. “I always see her around, and every time I see her, I still think of her as my pony.”