Meet the New Marketing and Communications Director By Ray Ingandela
There’s a new face at the United States Pony Clubs’ National Office! Meet Samantha Smith, our new Marketing and Communications Director. Although she is responsible for a lot of things—promoting Pony Club, editing the magazine, logo design and maintenance, social media growth, etc.—my impression, when I interviewed her, was that she is well-qualified to handle it all. She brings to USPC her vast experience from roles on her career path. Sam is originally from Upstate NY where she first was introduced to horses. Her father and grandparents owned harness horses and she always asked to take riding lessons. At ten years old, she began riding at a hunter-jumper barn called Gallop On Farm with Linda Connors. Four years later, her parents bought her first horse, a seasoned Appendix Registered Quarter Horse named Kas. Together they had so much fun in American Quarter
Horse Association (AQHA) shows in Hunt Seat Classes plus loads of local shows. Lots of hoofbeats later, Samantha left for college and sadly
leased (and later sold) her aged horse to a deserving new rider. Fortunately, for us, she opted to school at the University of Kentucky in Lexington. Her love of horses steered her towards a major in Animal Science with Animal Industry Specialty and a minor in Biology. At UK she discovered Kappa Delta Sorority AND the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA). By the time her Junior year rolled around, she was President of the 70-rider
