Meet the 2025 USPC Academy of Achievement Inductees

The USPC Academy of Achievement recognizes Pony Club alumni for being outstanding in their chosen fields of expertise. Individuals are nominated by members, leaders, and other alumni for this exceptional award. In 2025, two alumni—Nicole Ligon Wimer and William Robertson—were selected as the Academy of Achievement inductees by a national committee and invited to attend the National Youth Congress, which is an intensive leadership training for those ages 18 to 23 years of age, at the 2025 USPC Convention. They also were honored during the Saturday Night Banquet, Presented by Via Nova Training, as were the National Youth Congress delegates listed below.

The 2025 USPC Academy of Achievement alumni spent several days with that year’s National Youth Congress delegates engaging in one-on-one and small-group leadership talks, helping guide the delegates as they worked through challenges and developed proposals for consideration by the USPC Board of Governors. Each year, these chosen alumni serve as mentors and advisors and develop strong relationships with the next generation of USPC youth leaders, and they also get to share with the full group about their career and life experiences, the role that Pony Club played in their journey and are recognized for the successes they’ve had professionally and personally.

Nicole Ligon Wimer

Nicole Ligon Wimer is an A Eventing alum from Pickering Hunt Pony Club in the Eastern Pennsylvania Region. She is also a National Examiner for the United States Pony Clubs. Nicole has served Pony Club in a variety of roles, including as a Board of Governors member, a National Youth Board Chair, Regional Instruction Coordinator, Visiting Instructor, and as a chair and member on various committees. She participated on the Pony Club International Alliance Inter-Pacific Exchange team for USPC when it was hosted in Canada in 2015 and coached the USPC team to victory in Hong Kong in 2019. Nicole is extremely passionate about the upper-level opportunities that USPC has given her and about encouraging other members to seek out those opportunities for themselves.

She currently lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, Bradley, and one-year-old daughter, Danielle. She is the assistant trainer and manager of Firefly Farm, specializing in helping students achieve their goals in partnership and competition, especially with young horses gaining experience and off-track Thoroughbreds starting second careers. She competes through 2* Eventing and Third Level Dressage, and has earned her United States Dressage Federation (USDF) Bronze medal.

William Robertson

William Robertson’s first developed his passion for riding and began his journey in the equestrian world with USPC in the Middle California Region. After moving to the Midsouth Region, he graduated as a C-2 member. Since his days in Pony Club, William has grown into a respected professional rider, trainer, and now a full-time hunter course designer across the U.S. and Canada. Holding a Registered judges license with USEF in both Eventing and Show Jumping, he aspires to obtain a FEI license in both disciplines. He is also a Recorded licensed Hunter Course Designer.

His impressive portfolio includes designing courses through the Grand Prix level and 4* Eventing at top-tier events and prestigious venues such as the Split Rock Jumping Tour, Brave Horse, Fox Lea Farm, Texas Rose Horse Park, Harrisburg Farm Show Arena, Thunderbird Show Park, Woodside Horse Park, Twin Rivers Ranch, and Bromont Equestrian Park. Currently, William serves as the resident hunter course designer at Princeton Show Jumping, where he designs the United States Hunter/Jumper Association (USHJA) National Hunter Derby North Regional Championships, which are held every August.

Beyond his own course design work, William has assisted in the design of courses for several prestigious FEI 4* and 5* Show Jumping events. These include the Winter Equestrian Festival in Wellington, Fla., Major League Show Jumping competition at Tryon International Equestrian Center, the National Horse Show in Lexington, Ky., the Kentucky Three-Day Event and Kentucky Invitational, and two World Cup qualifiers hosted by the Split Rock Jumping Tour in Fort Worth, Texas, and at Santa Anita Racetrack in California.

View past Academy of Achievement Inductees and read bios of past inductees.