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John P. Smail, David Shepherd, Adam Smail, Howard Hipwood and Julian Hipwood receiving a Pony Club award c.1961

Pony Club

Now in their ninth decade, Pony Clubs have introduced generation after generation to equine sports and care, writes Herbert Spencer

Male members of the Pony Clubs may cringe at this suggestion, but one of the humorous cartoons of the late Norman Thelwell (19232004) could well serve as an unofficial logo for the world’s largest young riders’ organisation.

Pony Clubs started in the UK some 80 years ago and have since spread to more than 30 countries with more than 100,000 members, with hundreds of thousands of adult volunteers supporting them.

The ‘Thelwell pony’ cartoons are much beloved by the horsy set. Young girls desperately try to control mischievous, potbellied little horses as they engage in gymkhanas and mounted games. As the vast majority of Pony Club riders are female, one of these charming cartoons would be an amusing brand image for the clubs.

On a more serious note, however, the Pony Clubs have been impressively instrumental in early development of youngsters’ skills in horse sports. Many an Olympic equestrian competitor got his or her start in a Pony Club and most of Britain’s leading polo players have received their earlier training in Pony Club Polo.

A quintessentially English concept, the worldwide Pony Club movement grew out of the English fox hunting community’s desire to encourage riding among the young. In 1928 the Institute of the Horse (later amalgamated into the British Horse Society) started a sub-branch scheme in different parts of the country organising paper chases and gymkhanas for children.

On 1 November 1929 the Institute of the Horse formally founded a ‘junior branch’ to be known as ‘The Pony Club’. By 1930, the British Pony Club membership was 700 and the first overseas club had been formed, the Royal Calpe Hunt Pony Club in Gibraltar. The following year membership in the UK jumped to 4,442 at 59 branches.

Today there are some 50,000 British Pony Club riders, aged six to 21, in 345 branches and 560 centres. Around 85 per cent of the members are female. Activities include all the equestrian disciplines – including polo.

Pony Club Polo, now supported by the Hurlingham Polo Association (HPA) and Audi UK, started in 1959 with its first tournament at Aldershot. Today there are some 400 children and young men and women playing polo in more than 30 branches of the Pony Club. Over the years scores of Britain’s leading players have come up through the Pony Club, from 9-goalers Julian and Howard Hipwood to 7-goalers Luke and Mark Tomlinson, mainstays of England’s national team.

British Pony Club riders demonstrate their skills, including polo, at major equestrian events such as the Horse of the Year Show and the Royal Windsor Horse Show and every year feature in the opening parade at the HPA’s International Polo Day. The global spread of Pony Clubs began in the Thirties. After Gibraltar came Australia in 1938; Pony Club Australia now has the world’s largest membership, just under 55,000 riders at 980 clubs. The Euro Pony Club was founded in 1989 and lists 12 member countries from Sweden to Turkey.

The US Pony Club was established in 1954 and now has 10,000 young riders, 90 per cent female, in 600 clubs. Starting in 2012, it will finally include polo in its activities, supported by the US Polo Association.