Meet the 2025 USPC Founders Award Winners

The prestigious USPC Founders Award is given each year to one or more people who have made a significant contribution to Pony Club at the local, regional, and national levels over a period of 20 years or more. Three individuals were recognized with the 2024 USPC Founders Award during the 2025 USPC Convention in Traverse City, Mich., at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa on Saturday night, January 25, during the Saturday Night Banquet, Presented by Via Nova Training.

Colonel Lorelei Wilson Coplen

As an “Army brat,” Lorelei Wilson Coplen was a member of several Pony Clubs throughout the country, starting in the 1970s as an untested member (then called unrated) of Fiddler’s Green Pony Club in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., with her rescue pony, Shadrack. In that short year, she earned her coveted D certification and her Junior colors with the Leavenworth Hunt Club before heading off with her family to Pony Club among the embassy folks in a multi-cultural environment in Morocco.

She would later return to the United States and was involved in Pony Club through the Carolina and South Regions during her middle school years—when Pony Clubs still existed near military bases because military bases still had horse stables. Fortunately for her, her parents recognized the value of the Pony Club curriculum well beyond its equine educational aspects. Therefore, if there was not a Club where they were assigned, they soon created one.

Her high school Pony Club years were in Pennsylvania with Margo Leithead as her Regional Supervisor. She scrambled on to the New Jersey team for the 1980 USPC National Combined Training Championships in Bath, Ohio, and earned her H-A in 1981 before heading off to the United States Military Academy at West Point. At that point, she assumed her Pony Club experience was behind her. However, in the early 1980s, some of the USPC Legends interceded with military authorities to grant her a weekend to make the trip to a test in Virginia, which is where she earned her A. Those same Pony Club ambassadors ensured she got to Saxonburg, Penn., to compete in the summer of 1984, although she had to wear her cadet equestrian uniform throughout the competition. She remains grateful to them and considers them role models.

She graduated from West Point in 1985 among the first few classes including women and was commissioned as an Aviation lieutenant. In her 30 years of military service, she held positions spanning diverse areas, such as logistics, human resources, outreach, and operations. Her critical professional positions include command of an aviation company during Operation Desert Storm in 1990 into 1991, as well as command of an 800-soldier aviation support battalion of the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq from 2005 to 2006. While at the Pentagon, she led or was a member of task forces that increased women’s opportunities in military roles. Later, she led a similar effort to reimagine military professional service for warriors returning from combat with disabling injuries. After attending the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, Penn., she served as faculty there and as the Deputy Director of the United States Army Peacekeeping and Stability Operations Institute and then the Chief Operations Officer for the War College. She left military service as a Colonel but remains in Carlisle in a home built in 1752 on 12 acres of Pennsylvania paradise, which is where she and her husband board horses. She currently holds teaching and writing contracts with the U.S. Defense Department and Elizabethtown College and, of course, still does daily barn and farm chores, as well as continual renovation of their historic property.

The United States Pony Clubs remained—and remains—a principal focus for her throughout her military and post-military career. Her adult involvement includes coaching and club instructor positions, as well as District Commissioner and other Club leadership roles; service on committees or as an officer in several USPC regions; and as a National Examiner for several years. She was inducted into the USPC Academy of Achievement in 2002.  She served on the USPC Board of Governors from 2008 until 2011 as the Vice President of Instruction. From 2011 to 2019, she was the USPC Secretary and a chair or member of several USPC Board Committees. From 2020 to 2024, she was the Vice President of Regional Administration. Between 2015 to today, she is part of the Maryland Region leadership team, including spending a few years as the Regional Supervisor, and she remains on the Board until her term expires.

Lorelei is joined by her husband of  37 years, Richard, who is also a West Point graduate and retired from the U.S. Army as a Military Intelligence officer and is currently a professor, political consultant, and local school board member. The Pony Club tradition continues in her family with her daughters, Jacqueline and Michaela, who both achieved their C-3 certifications in their respective disciplines.  Captain Jacqueline Campione is an Allegheny College and University of Virginia Law graduate and currently a federal government lawyer in Arlington, Va. Michaela Coplen is former National Student Poet, a Vassar College alum and Marshall Scholar, and holds a doctorate from the University of Oxford, United Kingdom. She is currently serving as a peace negotiator with an international nongovernmental organization based in the United Kingdom.

The whole family credits Pony Club—and a long line of rescue horses and ponies—for the life skills taught to them.

Yvette R. Seger, PhD

When Larry and Diane Seger dropped their eight-year-old daughter, Yvette, off at a week-long sleep-away camp that included horseback riding lessons, they had no idea the extent to which their lives (and bank account) would change. After that, weekly lessons at the local riding school turned into relocation to a small farm and acquisition of a tolerant grey gelding named Smokey. Yvette first heard of Pony Club through her copious readings of Jill Krementz’s book, A Very Young Rider, and her desire to join USPC was further stoked by Dr. Jeni Hren-Gaffney, then a young veterinarian establishing herself at a local clinic who was an graduate A (back when members graduated out of Pony Club; compared to today where members of all ages are now joining). Like many prospective members, the greatest barrier to Yvette joining Pony Club was identifying an appropriate local club. This was alleviated by the establishment of Lake Shore Pony Club by her mother in 1988 to serve the northwestern territory of the Tri-State Region. This would be the club from which Yvette ultimately graduated in 1997.

Pony Club and the Seger family were a match made in heaven, with the detail-oriented Yvette becoming quickly enamored with the Horse Management portions of both rallies and certifications, while her parents saw a perfect venue for their shy daughter to work both independently and as part of a team while honing skills in communication and self-advocacy. Lessons learned through Pony Club helped Yvette achieve success both in the saddle and beyond. Her proudest Pony Club accomplishments include attaining her H-A certification, receiving the USPC Cavalry Association trophy as the highest-placed Pony Club member in her first full classic three-day event, and being inducted into the USPC Academy of Achievement in 2012.

Although Yvette took an eight-year hiatus from riding to pursue her undergraduate and doctoral degrees, the lessons learned from Pony Club were critical to success in these new arenas. As an undergraduate at Ohio Wesleyan University, Yvette conducted independent research that identified genetic markers for equine cryptorchidism and pseudo-hermaphroditism in Quarter Horses and Appaloosas, respectively. This passion for research led Yvette to Stony Brook University, where she received a PhD for her studies that sought to elucidate the genetic elements required to convert a normal human cell into one that is cancerous, an understanding that could lead to more targeted therapies.

An interest in the intersection between science and public policy resulted in Yvette relocating to Washington, DC, a move that reinvigorated both her career and passion for Pony Club. Yvette’s re-entry into Pony Club started with regular appearances at rallies as an Assistant Horse Management Judge, where she was encouraged to enter the Provisional Chief Horse Management Judge Program, becoming a Chief Horse Management Judge in 2009. Beyond her service as a Chief Horse Management Judge, Yvette has extensive volunteer experience at the National level, including terms on the Board of Governors (2013–2022) and Advisory Committee (2022–present) and active membership on the Horse Management, Eventing, Safety, Strategic Planning, Policy, and Marketing and Communications committees, having served terms as Chair for four.  At the regional and club level, Yvette served as Horse Management Organizer for the Capital Region and was an active adult member and sponsor of Wakefield Valley, Potomac, and Frederick Pony Clubs.

When the Capital and Virginia Regions co-hosted the 2015 USPC Annual Convention, Yvette volunteered to coordinate the USPC Research Project Fair. Since then, she has continued to grow and adapt the Research Project Fair to engage more members, including expanding offerings to include literature reviews, group projects, and a virtual fair for members unable to travel to Convention. During this span, over 175 members have exhibited nearly 200 unique projects in the Research Project Fair, with many continuing to apply the lessons learned from this experience to pursue careers in STEM fields. Similarly, Yvette’s interest in fostering the development of Pony Club’s next generation of leaders led to her role as an advisor for USPC’s National Youth Board, and more recently, the Youth Advisory Council of the Pony Club International Alliance.

Ron VanDyke

Ron VanDyke is from the Inland Empire Region and has worn many different hats during his time with USPC. It all began when his daughters joined the United States Pony Clubs back in 1997. Ron’s first regional role was Vice Regional Supervisor for the Inland Empire Region in 2001, 2005, and 2009.  In between this time, he was Regional Supervisor for three years and also Joint District Commissioner of Rivers Edge Pony Club.

He first came onto the Board of Governors in 2007 and served on multiple board committees over his time on the board, from strategic planning, communications, governance, the Riding Center Review Task Force, and he was chair of the audit committee twice.

Ron lives with his wife of 45 years, April, in Spokane, Wash., and they are always busy with their 10 grandchildren and also love to get out and travel.

Learn more about the USPC Founders award and view past winners and read more bios from award winners.