Where to Find Pony Club Teaching Tools and Education Resources

By the USPC Instructions Department

The United States Pony Clubs (USPC or Pony Club) has developed a wide array of teaching tools and educational resources for members to go through the Pony Club curriculum. The first places to go for any teaching information, lesson design, and resources on a topic are the USPC Manuals of Horsemanship.  You can also find articles involve Pony Club’s curriculum and program on this blog. And if you are looking for what will be asked at a certification or test, then you must look and study the Standards of Proficiency for the level you want to achieve, which can be found online. The USPC website has a lot of resources for teaching and learning the necessary skills and knowledge found in the USPC Standards of Proficiency, but where should you go first?  Let’s dive into that so that you can have an organized process for pulling information together.

First, to get to many of the resources we’ll mention, you’ll want to be logged in to www.ponyclub.org, since much of the information is for members only. Once you are logged in, you can click on the related links below.

The Pony Club Curriculum

If you are looking for knowledge about the Pony Club curriculum, which is our Standards of Proficiency, then you would go here to Standards and Test Sheets, which is also found under the Education menu.

For Local-Level Certifications

For club/center leaders who are organizing a local-level test, there is information that you will want to review and will also need to share with your local Examiner. Also under the Education menu, look for Local-Level Testing. This page also has more great information, such as the Chart of Learning (as a PDF) that outlines the progression of the certification levels, along with explanations of each one and how to achieve them. 

The Chart of Learning is also handy for members to see the path they can take within Pony Club. Next to the Chart of Learning button is another way to get to the Standards and Test Sheets to see what skills are needed for each level.

USPC Teaching Tools

If you are looking to teach the Pony Club curriculum, then the above pages work as this is all good information, but wait…there is much more.  You may notice the word “Teach” in the menu bar. If you mouse over this, you will find Lesson Plans for Instructors  for various topics related to the Pony Club standards. There are Horse Management lesson plans that cover topics like bandaging, breeds, parts of the horse, confirmation,  nutrition, safety, and much more. Riding lesson plans are divided up by Mounted Lesson Plans or Discipline Lesson Plans, which also include Unmounted Lesson Plans related to that discipline. And finally, there are also lesson plans for USPC Professional Members. These lesson plans are expanded upon by the Instruction Department, and you will find dozens of options.

One more place to check out for both member and leader/instructor is the Teaching Tools page where you will find Flow Charts, Skill Sheets, & Testing Procedures, which help both instructor and member to see the bigger picture of how the Standards compare and progress through the levels.

Structured Programs

In addition to the lesson plans, if you click on “Education & Instruction Ideas” under the Teach menu, still while logged in, you’ll find more Pony Club teaching tools and ideas and resources for the USPC Achievement Badge Program, which is designed for D-level members to gain a sense of achievement towards their next certification. The program is like how scouts use badges to inspire their members to learn new skills. Badges are split into Horse Management (unmounted) and Riding (mounted), and the USPC manuals are used as resources. To access this program, you must be a USPC club/center member, have a Professional Membership, or be a USPC Riding Center.

Riding instructors can become USPC Professional Members to be able to offer a proven standardized curriculum provided by USPC. If you are interested in a USPC Professional Membership, visit www.ponyclub.org/professional-memberships.

There is also the Junior Pony Club, which features 14 unique lesson plans for very young or new members to prepare for the D-1 certification. And there are also several resources on this page for teaching Horse Management and an Instructor Toolbox with a handy checklist on needed things for instructors and examples of how to prepare interactive hands-on lessons.

Activities and Resources

In addition to regular rallies, the United States Pony Clubs also encourages regions to try events, such as a camp or a rally without the horse, called an Everything but the Horse (EBTH) Rally. This same page of “Education & Instruction Ideas” also includes resources for these, along with a place to start reading Pony Club IQ, a special microsite developed by TheHorse.com just for Pony Club members to enhance their equine knowledge with information straight from veterinary professionals. This member benefit is open to all. Simply use your Pony Club username and password (the same one you use for www.ponyclub.org to get into your profile). Everything is arranged in Pony Club IQ by the standards.

The resources developed in the above places offer a great start for those who are teaching the Pony Club curriculum or those who want to learn various lessons about horse care and riding. In addition, the Pony Club website offers an abundance of information for members as they traverse through their certifications. We hope you enjoy browsing under the Education menu for those resources.

If you have a suggestion for a Pony Club teaching tool, resource, or topic to be covered, please email [email protected].