Local Riders Uprate in Cedar Knob Pony Club

Cedar Knob Pony Club announces the uprating of Sydney Burch, 12, and Ciera Foley, 12, from unrated to D2 at a testing held on April 10 at Sunshine Oaks Farm in Madison.

To earn the rating, the children passed an examination that tested horsemanship skills and knowledge. This was the first standardized rating test for the children since joining the Pony Club in January.

Each of the 10 Pony Club ratings is more difficult than the preceding one, and requires pony Club members to learn more about horses and their care and to become increasingly accomplished riders and teachers of riding and horse care to younger members. The top rating, “A” is reached by fewer than one in 300 and denotes throughout the international horse industry a highly competent and knowledgeable horseperson.

The leader of Cedar Knob Pony Club is Joanna Caldwell of Taft, Tenn. There are 13 members in Cedar Knob Pony Club and approximately 12,500 members of USPC in 625 clubs throughout the country. Along with emphasis on helping members learn to ride and care for horses, Pony Club promotes teamwork, a sense of responsibility, safety, and good moral judgment and self- confidence.

The United States Pony Club, Inc. (USPC) was founded in 1954 as a nonprofit national youth organization to teach riding and horsemanship through a formal educational program. Many of the nation’s top equestrians, including most of our Olympic Equestrian team members have Pony Club roots. Members range in age from 7 through age 21. Activities are English-riding based and members ride both horses and ponies, depending on the size of their rider and the discipline in which s/he is competing.

All Pony Club competition is team competition. much like the Olympic games, where members learn the importance of cooperation and teamwork.

For more info. about CKPC, please contact Joanna Caldwell at (931) 425-9138.