Cowfeathers Farm to Foxcroft Farm: Pony Club.

Middlest and Patch have a post-rating and pre-lesson stroll.

Anywhere you go, pony clubbers are all turned out to ride, pretty much the same. They will have helmets, collars, breeches and boots, a pony club pin on their collar and an emergency arm band on their arm. Their ponies(and horses) will have simple tack, gentle bits and be groomed. The riders will occasionally get dumped off, dust themselves off, have a bit of a cry if it was a bad one, and then, if not headed to hospital, get back on and continue the lesson, one dump wiser.

Pony Club. For me, it conjures the mists of memory, musty and bright. As a young pony clubber in 70's and 80's New England, I didn't analyze it much. It was just my club, my team, my template for being with my pony (originally Peanut, a feisty Shetland, then horse, Frosty, a feistier grey, then Holly, a sweetheart Thoroughbred/Quarter Horse cross... in pony club, all mounts are "ponies", regardless of size). But now, I can't separate the pony club of my youth from the Britishness it has become infused with over time as I've experienced life. Including British pony club.

It amuses me more.

Yet, I can think of no better way for a child and her horse, or pony, to become a competent team, and raise a knowledgeable horse person. Plus, it's fun.

So, this year, Middlest joined Pony Club. Her Club is called Hunters Run Pony Club, mine was Lonetown Pony Club. And, over the past thirty years, much has changed, and even more has not.

One of the differences from my perspective is Middlest's pony club mounted meetings are about an hour and twenty minute trailer ride from Cowfeathers. As a child, I "hacked", or rode to, our mounted meetings. It took about a half-hour to ride up the road, behind the telephone building, through the woods, come out at the dead end of Deacon Abbot Rd. and then to the intersection across from the elementary school. Lonetown Pony Club met in the pony club field close to the school. It was a scrubby field, surrounded by colonial stone walls, and featured a hard-packed dirt rectangle; our arena. After our diesel-guzzling, 45 mile drive, Hunters Run Pony Club has mounted meetings at an amazing private barn, with an immaculate indoor arena, fantastic outdoor arena, and a vast cross country course, including a challenging water obstacle, coops, picture frames, tables, everything a daring young pony clubber could desire.

So, this weekend, Middlest arrived early to her lesson, with newly borrowed mount, Patches, in tow, to take her first "rating". In Pony Club there is a list of standards you must meet in order to achieve each level, or rating. You begin with a D1, and proceed on to D2, D3, C1,C2,C3, B and A ( that is oversimplified, but the gist). For this first rating, she passed nicely, and was presented with her D1 rating certificate- the same one I received all those years ago. Although, I believe back then, I really started as a D2, it was the 70's, and more relaxed.

Then, she had her mounted lesson with one of the accomplished pony club instructors. She and Patch had a great time, and played well together. I watched. Now in the position of not having the ride, but being the ride. Okay, I was a bit jealous, it was a gorgeous day!