Brianna's Blog Post # 7

Jack of All Trades, Master of None


Phewww! What a wild ride! Between 3 horses 2 months and 1 rider, I have had the time of my life! The past few weeks have been complete insanity in and of its own and it wasn't all between a red and white flag! :D

My five year old Hanoverian Mare, Fay, or better known as “The Dragon” finally began her journey through pony club. Even qualifying and being chosen to attend the USPC Nationals that were held at the end of July. I was more than proud to ride a home grown to 12th against some truly amazing competitors.


(Photo of Fine As Wine)

For those who are unfamiliar with Pony Club, despite the entirely unthreatening name, Pony Club is one of the most intense organizations I have yet to try. It offers excellent instruction from beginning to end. The organization is structured around a certification system. Beginning with unrated, meaning you have never been tested and approved to any level in pony club. Every level of certification requires that you be judged on your knowledge of horse management as well as riding. The Lower levels are as follows; D1, D2 , and D3 to which the uneducated horse owner/rider is given a basic understanding of how to care for, tack, and ride their equine partner.

The mid levels are C1, C2, and C3 which is where it becomes complicated. C1 and C2 are tested similarly to the “D” levels with increasingly more indepth information about the equine animal, but C3 is where the rider and horse are required to be tested nationally. This meaning that the club you may belong to is not allowed to test and approve you. An approved USPC inspector must be brought in to assess your horse management and riding ability. This holds true through out the rest of the upper levels which are HB, B, HA, and A. The “H” stands for horse management and when being tested, the rider is not judged on their riding ability to achieve either an HB nor an HA.  Horse Management is simply the technical part of horses, the knowledge part really. The B and A level are where you are tested on your riding ability. “A” is the highest level and is quite difficult to achieve. Yours truly is sitting comfortably at the C2 level and, knowing that my old fellow would not be able to take me up the levels, the Dragon Mare was conceived.

The final week of July, the week after Nationals with Fay, I turned around and took two other horses to our local County fair for another 5 days of show time. Our county fair allows a rider to compete in a wide variety of disciplines. Monday is Dressage with a class or two of Cart Driving tossed in there. Tuesday is Jumping, Wednesday is English day (Pleasure and Equitation on the flat), Thursday is Western Day (More Pleasure and Equitation in Western Attire) and Friday (despite a few trail classes and reining patterns) is Contesting day. Being that the competing is free (Thank you 4-H!) I have a policy of competing every day in nearly every class available to me because I see absolutely no reason to not go out and have a great time learning about something I don’t often get to do. Especially being privileged with the three amazing horses who not only went out and gave every question a go through out the 10 days of competition (Including Nationals), but were successful as well (much of the success being personal victories).

So if theres a moral to my writing today (besides how proud I am of my horses and seeing all the hard work come together to one grand finale) is to give as many disciplines as possible a try. It may not be your thing and you may drop it as quickly as you picked it up or you may appreciate the discipline but never be serious about it. Still challenge yourself to try it. You just never know what will fit your fancy. I dedicate a good part of my success to not being afraid to give something a try and to take every opportunity to be a better and more versatile equestrian! As my wise ol’ grandfather would put it “A jack of all trades, master of none”