Slices of Life
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Star Stable: How to Combine Your Love of Horses (and your laptop) into a Thriving Career
According to the American Horse Council, 38 million households contain at least one horse enthusiast, with 150,000 equestrians getting their start through Pony Club. You may already be thinking about a future career that incorporates your love of horses, such as a veterinarian or a riding instructor. But let me ask you this: have you ever imagined a career that combines your love of horses and your interest in your laptop? For example, you could become a video game designer who creates horses for players around the world. After all, the video game industry offers several highly desirable opportunities to combine two favorite pastimes and turn them into an exciting…
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Learning and Giving Back Through Pony Club Opportunities
By NYB Member Brittany Flores When I joined the United States Pony Club when I was about eight years old, I went to D camp for the first time. It gave me a great opportunity to learn about horse management and D Camp, an annual Pony Club camp that has been happening for many many years. Our D camp is run by the Santa Cruz County Pony Club which is located in the Middle California Region. This camp allows the younger members of Pony Club in the regional area to have a fun experience and camp with their horses while also learning an abundance of new lessons, responsibilities, and knowledge…
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Goldilocks and the Twelve Riders
By: Kim Baierl Goldilocks and the twelve riders sound like it could be an equestrian-themed fairytale. Well, if you have been fortunate enough to ride with or audit a Daniel Stewart clinic then some of your dreams may be coming true. Daniel has a way of creating enthusiasm and telling a story to provoke focus and learning and to inspire the desire to “make the rest of the ride the best of the ride”. Harts Run Hunt and Rolling Rock Pony Club hosted the animated clinician at Double Springs Farm for a “Pressure Proofing” clinic over fences. Daniel began the clinic addressing all of the riders and auditors with his…
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Star Stable Saddles Up and Rides Into Tryon International Equestrian Center
By: Guest author Matilda Opalpie from the online horse adventure game Star Stable Greetings (or as we say, “Hej”) from Stockholm, Sweden! My name is Matilda Opalpie. If you are a Star Stable player, you might know me for my iconic black hat and for awkwardly stumbling on words while trying to present all the latest news (and other fun stuff!) about the online game Star Stable! If somebody would have told me when I was a little horse-loving girl that I would be working for an amazing horse game one day, I would have thought they were pulling my leg. But here I am, ta daaa! And right now,…
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2017 Flash Teamwork Award Winner- Prancing Ponies Games Team
The Prancing Ponies Games Team was the winner of the 2017 Flash Teamwork Award for their incredible act of sportsmanship and teamwork at the 2017 USPC Festival. Thanks to Emily Cambridge, an H-A grad and now Club Secretary of Northern Exposure Pony Club in the Western New York Region for submitting their story. This year at Champs, I experienced something very special. I was the coach for my son’s junior games team, Prancing Ponies. On day two of the competition, his team saw that another team was struggling. The senior team, Impulsion, had two ponies that weren’t cooperating. One member of their team left the arena in a stretcher, and…
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Chloe DeYoung: Teamwork Superstar
Emma Entwistle, DC of South Wind Pony Club in the Midwest Region sent in our final finalist for the 2017 Flash Teamwork Award. She nominated member, Chloe DeYoung (C-2 HM, C-1 Trad) for the award because of the contributions Chloe has made to their club and region. South Wind Pony Club is barely one year old! To date, we have 28 members ranging from 6 years old to 22 years old. Our club has grown at an exponential speed this year and I am thoroughly grateful for the constant team building, leadership, dedication and passion Chloe DeYoung has repeatedly demonstrated! As such a young club, many of our members are…
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Ashland Tudor, the next Flash
The Flash Teamwork Award is given out annually to a person, equine, club, center, or region who displays as much teamwork as Cathy Aranosian’s club members did when writing about Flash, the horse, for the Breyer model. Abigail Guillemette, C-1HM, Flat, D-3 Traditional member of Monadnock Pony Club in the White Mountain Region shared with us her story of a horse named Ashland Tudor who, like Flash, has had a great impact on many Pony Club members I remember the first time I took Teddy cross country schooling. He refused most every jump, and to avoid going through water, he hopped onto a six inch retaining wall and then leapt…
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Flash Award Contender- The Vet Box
C-2 Traditional member, Hannah Fisher of Pickering Hunt Pony Club in the Eastern Pennsylvania Region sent in this fantastic story about her view of teamwork. This story was a finalist for the Flash Teamwork Award presented each year to a region, club, center, outstanding person, team, or horse to recognize the teamwork Pony Club values so highly. Read along as Hannah shares her story: The Vet Box It was the day I was most excited for at the 2017 USPC National Championships in Lexington, Kentucky. It was my first year riding at Champs and it was cross-country day for Beginner Novice Eventing. I was excited for cross country since it…
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Tales of a Pony Club Saddlemaker-In-Training Part 3
Adrienne Hendricks, H-A graduate, Boise Pony Club, in the Intermountain Region has agreed to blog her journey as an Apprentice Saddle Maker. Follow along as Adrienne shares her highs and lows of becoming a Master Saddler Here is an older saddle that needed to be re-flocked. This turned out to be a great way to show how to re flock a wool panel and also how the panels are attached to the tree. It helped that I needed to use white tread so you can see the stitching easier. The term “reflock” can cause lots of confusion as adjustments often get lumped into the term “reflock”. An adjustment or spot…
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Tales of a Pony Club Saddlemaker-In-Training Part 2
Adrienne Hendricks, H-A graduate, Boise Pony Club, in the Intermountain Region has agreed to blog her journey as an Apprentice Saddle Maker. Follow along as Adrienne shares her highs and lows of becoming a Master Saddler I had a saddle come in to have the foam panels recovered. I wanted to give you an overview of the process of this, so lets start with the before picture of the saddle: Here you can see the old covered panel. This is a foam panel as opposed to a wool flocked panel. It is felt on top which is the white you see below. Then layers of latex foam that create the…
