Mobberley Pony Club Centre

The Pony Club was started in 1929 for the purpose of helping children to enjoy riding and learn about the care of ponies and it has grown into a worldwide organisation.

There are currently over 50,000 pony club members in the UK alone with 16,000 enjoying Centre Membership.
Mobberley is one of 575 linked centres enabling non pony owning young people to be members of the Pony Club.
The benefits of membership include taking the ongoing tests which form the structure of the training regime within the Pony Club.

Membership is open to anyone under the age of 21 and the higher level tests are recognised both internationally and professionally within the equine industry. Members also benefit from 3rd party insurance.

At Mobberley, the Pony Club activities we offer are general riding tuition, dressage, jumping and polocrosse as well as all aspects of stable management up to H test level.
Over the last few years our members have represented us at the National Championships in the Centre Equitation, Polocrosse, Horse & Pony Care and also at the National Quiz.

We run several sessions throughout the week for different abilities of rider. For more details on membership please speak to us in the office or alternatively go to the Pony Club website.

Pony Club Championships
We had an excellent day at the Pony Club Centre Championships this year which was held at the very picturesque Cholmondeley Castle. The team this year was Emily Gaskin and Isabelle Baldwin riding Prince and Hana Ward and Kate Evans riding Solo.

First up was the dressage test with Prince performing two accurate and respectable tests for his riders. Despite any nerves at never having been to a major competition before they rode very confidently to secure high marks in each of their sections.
Next it was Solo’s turn to do his tests and both riders rode correctly and accurately to secure good marks as well.

The next round was the jumping and Prince was in his element, jumping two perfect rounds so that Emily and Isabelle could keep their positions as stylish as possible as this was marked on style and performance rather than speed!
Solo suffered from stage fright entering the ring and stopped at the first fence but Kate held her nerve and continued with an otherwise foot perfect round, Solo then went on to jump clear with Hana ensuring that we had a chance of being in the final placings!

The team finished 7th out of 24 teams from all over the country with Isabelle coming 4th individually, Emily 5th, Kate 10th and Hana 12th - a great result. Well done everyone!

Emma thinks Prince also deserves a special mention for being such a dream pony to take out. He behaved impeccably with all the tents, burger vans and other sights. He is also a dream pony for being a nice, clean, shiny, dark colour (despite being bathed the day before, Solo had to have a further scrub clean at 5.30am!)

Mini Olympics
Despite the poor weather we enjoyed an exciting week holding our own Mini Olympics in July!
Eight competitors selected a country to represent and on the first day had fun grooming their ponies to perfection for the Best Turned Out. The second day was dressage, with a practice of the Prelim test in the morning and the judging in the afternoon.
We braved a wet Wednesday for the cross country which both the children and ponies thoroughly enjoyed! Thursday was showjumping so the riders had to remember to be accurate with their turns compared to the previous day’s fun in the field.

On the final day we had fun with gymkhana and a canter round the track. The eventual winners were Tiffany Lavin who was representing Germany with Gold, Sarah Blane representing Australia with Silver and Natasha Anson representing Great Britain with Bronze.

Mobberley Riding School Pony Club has been very busy so far this year. In January we did the Working Dogs badge which is always exciting as the members get to bring their dogs along to the final week to take part in a dog parade.

This time we had several breeds including Labradors, Rough Coated Collies, Border Collies, a German Shepherd and a Jack Russell! A fun and informative evening was had by all.

Amongst the usual equine related badges we also had a go at the Farming badge which included learning about different breeds of sheep and cattle rather than ponies!

We finished off at Easter with a fancy dress gymkhana where several chickens came along!

The costumes at the Pony Club Halloween Gymkhana were amazing this year as can be seen in these photos. Everyone made a splendid effort to dress themselves and their ponies.

The event was run by Emma who organised the games and the fun and a good time was had by all. (A special thanks to Sue Godding for the photos.)

The Pony Club Christmas Gymkhana will be held on 16 December so start collecting the tinsel now!

The dates and times of the Pony Club courses for the Autumn term are now posted in the reception area and bookings are being taken.

Please phone the office for further information.

MRS is an ever-growing Pony Club Centre, and we regularly run Pony Club activities throughout the year. The Pony Club is a charitable organisation that has over 100,000 members around the world. As a Centre, we enable children without their own ponies to take part in similar activities to those who do. Membership is open to anyone under the age of 21 who wishes to learn more about riding and horse care. An annual subscription is paid to the Pony Club, which includes Third party insurance.

The objectives of the Pony Club are:

We are currently one of the largest Pony Club Centres in the country with over 130 members grouped according to age and ability, and ranging from 6 years to 21 years old. Each member will work their way through the Pony Club tests and Achievement badges, thus keeping a record of their progress as they learn more about horses and riding. Children are encouraged to develop their knowledge and practical experience as well as their riding, and as they work up the levels the Pony Club tests hold real value in the adult world. For those hoping to work in the equine industry the PC tests can mean exemption from some of the BHS exams that career students take.

Pony Club activities run regularly throughout the year, and include rally days, short courses, training clinics, competitions, gymkhanas, polocrosse sessions and even a Christmas party! We produce a termly newsletter and events programme to help keep everyone up to date.

Our experienced older members can be seen out and about regularly competing for MRS in dressage, polocrosse, National Quiz and Horse & Pony Care against Branch members with their own horses, or as part of our Centres team against other riding schools. Our staff are very proud of the feedback we receive from both the parents and the Pony Club with regards to our training programme and competition success.

For our younger members we are now running a weekly 'Junior Pony Club', with members starting to work through their Mini Achievement Badges and Bronze Awards. Junior PC is for children who are off the lead rein and are learning to canter, and runs on Saturday afternoons, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.