DISCIPLINES
What is Canadian Pony Club all about?
QUIZ
Quizzes are staged to test a Pony Clubber's theoretical knowledge of horsemanship and of various Pony Club and Equestrian related activities. Regional Quiz competitions qualify pony club members to participate in the Annual National Quiz.
In Quiz, Pony Club members compete as teams ...without horses or ponies. Quiz tests knowledge, not skills.
Quiz has three parts:
a written test, which each competitor does independently;
a visual test where competitors have to identify strange ...obscure ...unusual objects of a horsy nature by sight, again individually;
and an oral test which may be done either individually or by team (each team gets to confer before answering) depending on a decision made each year well before the competition.
Each individual's scores go toward his/her team's total.
A word to the wise....Pony Club members who participate in Quiz somehow seem to do very well in testing. ( CPC website 2018)
TETRATHALON
Tetrathlon is a very demanding competition with four parts: swimming, running, riding, and shooting. Tetrathlon encourages, promotes and develops a Pony Club member's interest in horses and horsemanship by combining riding with other athletic activities.
Tetrathlon provides pony club members with a challenging competition requiring sound practical horsemanship, general athletic ability and sportsmanship.
Tetrathlon is based on the Olympic sport of Modern Pentathlon which has been included in the Olympics since 1912. (CPC website 2018)
PRINCE PHILLIP GAMES (PPG)
Teams of four or five riders and their ponies play the Prince Philip Games. With only four participating in each game, this gives ponies, and riders, a chance to catch their breath, by sitting out a race. Riders must be under the age of 15 as of January 1st in each year to be eligible to play "A" Division Prince Philip Games. There is also a "Masters Mounted Games" division for the older members. These riders may use horses. The Canadian Pony Club officially recognized the Masters Division in 1996. Riders interested in learning the Games are taught the necessary skills by the coach and/or by more experienced players in their Branch.
Teams, which qualify at the Regional level, may compete for their Zone Championships. The top teams from each zone compete for the National Championship. Some Regions provide additional levels of competition for less experienced players in a "B" and "C" division. These riders compete at a slower pace, looking for accuracy and technique before speed.
All of the Games are variations on the relay race. Some require the riders and ponies to maneuver a slalom course in and out around a series of upright poles from one end of the playing field to the other where they hand-off a prop to the next rider on the team. Some races require riders to vault off and on their ponies. Others require riders to drop objects such as socks, balls and vegetables into buckets using techniques to prevent bouncing out again! There is an egg-and-spoon race, and others which ask the rider to pick up objects with another object such as in the "Sword" and "Litter" Races. Riders develop remarkable skills in the areas of timing; sense of space, speed and direction; co-ordination; agility and horsemanship. They also laugh a good deal - the only way to deal with mistakes when everyone makes some!(CPC website 2018)
SHOW JUMPING
Show Jumping is one of the disciplines encouraged in pony club. It involves riders learning to navigate their mounts over a course of obstacles in the show ring. Riders move from poles on the ground at the lower levels up to jumping 1.2m obstacles at the highest levels.
Competitions may be run to test a rider's ability to combine speed with accuracy over a stadium course comprised of knockdown jumps. The objective is for riders to complete the "obstacle" course with the least amount of penalties being accumulated and without having exceeded the time allowed. Penalties are assessed for knockdowns and refusals. In the event of a tie, or with more than one rider having gone clear, then a timed jump-off is held with the rider having gone the fastest with the least penalties being the winner. (CPC website 2018)
DRESSAGE
Dressage is a French term, which translates to "training" and it is often referred to Horse Ballet. The purpose of dressage is to develop a horse's natural athletic ability and willingness to perform. It is the foundation from which all of the riding disciplines within Pony Club evolve.
Dressage within the Pony Club is offered as a separate discipline and as part of other disciplines like Rally. Competitions are typically held at the Regional level and also offered at the National Level for the Regional qualifiers.
In a competition, technical tests are ridden in either a 20x40m or 20x60m dressage ring with letters assigned to positions around the arena to specify where movements are to be performed. Movements within the test outline the specific elements and where they are to be performed in relation to the letters in the ring. Each movement is marked out of a base 10 points with some movements having a coefficient of 2 or more meaning they are worth double the points (if the coefficient is 2). Collective marks for the horse's gaits, riders ability, suppleness, etc. are also awarded and typically coefficients are applied to most of these marks. The final marks are totaled up and divided by the possible marks for the test resulting in a percentage mark for the test.
Freestyles / Kur, Pas de deux (2 riders) or Drill Teams (4 - 8 riders) can be ridden to music. (CPC website 2018)
RALLY
In the Canadian Pony Club, the competition portion of our Rallies consists of a 3 phase event (Dressage, cross-country, and Stadium Jumping) and the competitors are also scored on their Stable Management which involves many aspects of the care of their horses. (CPC website 2018)
LE TREC
Le TREC is a combined event, which rewards horse/rider combinations performing well over a range of tasks
rather than success in any one particular discipline.
Tasks are geared towards Canadian Pony Club levels of competency as determined by testing level
requirements. Moving up the levels from D to A can lead to international competition and the opportunity to
represent Canada at the World Championships. (CPC Le Trec Handbook 2018)