South West		Montana Chapter
PO BOX 10394, Bozeman, MT 59719	(406) 587-4377	lazybow@montanadsl.net

exerted from Practical Horseman, June 2001 OLD PEOPLES PONY CLUB It was just an offhand remark, really, but Hope Jacob couldn't put it out of her mind. "We were at a hunter pace about three years ago," she says. "The De La Brooke Pony Club kids were giving a gymkhana demonstration, and somebody turned to me and said, 'Hope, you should start an adult pony club.' I went home and I really started thinking about it." Hope, who lives in Lothian, Maryland, had plenty to think about. She had foxhunted for nearly thirty-five years; with De La Brooke Foxhounds, based in southern Maryland, for the past eighteen of those years, including eight years on staff. She'd shown successfully at the "little-time" level. And the students she'd taught, both youngsters and adults, did well at local Annapolis-area hunter shows.  But the times they were a-changin'. Getting up well before dawn, driving long distances to meets on frigid days, coming home past dusk --- what once was fun had become somewhat wearing. After serious thought, she and her husband, Rick, decided that perhaps hunting would no longer be their first pleasure. "At fifty-three," she says, "I didn't want to give up riding and participating in horse sports. I guess I simply wanted to slow down. Hope still wanted the camaraderie and community of group horse activities, but with an educational slant and in a more controlled riding environment. so she took that chance remark and ran with it. In the spring of 1998, she got together with three other riding friends of "a certain age" and started the Old People's Pony Club (OPPC) for adults twenty-one and older. Filling a Need "Quite simply, I thought there was a real need and desire for adults to get together and enjoy riding in a bunch of different ways, including very low-key competitions not dominated by professional bigwigs," Hope says. "We wanted an organization where everybody was basically in the same boat. We wanted to do horse trials, have horse shows, learn barrel-racing, go on trail rides, have educational activities, enjoy covered-dish suppers, and do overnights. We wanted to educate ourselves, but not in such a way that anybody would go away discouraged --- not even the 'evergreens' who maybe only ride twice a week. Even if their horses were just used for casual trail rides and were not terribly well schooled, these riders deserved their own organization that would make the sport of riding fun, safe, validating, and affordable." A riding group Hope didn't initially welcome was the highly rated graduate Pony Clubbers. "An A asked to join; I had reservations about accepting her." After being put off for some time, the young woman asked Hope why the hesitation. "I told her, "I don't want you coming here, being cocky, and putting us oldsters down." And she said, "But your club has activities I've never done with my horses, and clinics I couldn't otherwise afford." That was good enough for me. We had a barrel-racing clinic, and she did it. We had our overnight trail ride --- something she'd never done before --- and she was a fabulous addition to the group. When two B's wanted to join, I never hesitated to welcome them." Testing, Testing Organizing wasn't new to Hope. She'd organized hunt balls and hunter paces. Her husband, Rick, had showed at Hunt Nights indoors, and she'd coached the team. And when their two daughters were in Pony Club, Hope routinely volunteered. So she knew a good organization when she saw one --- which is why she borrowed from Pony Club for the basic structure of the OPPC.  Most significantly, Hope adopted a version of the US Pony Clubs' rating system, modified slightly "because their standards are so high." New OPPC members are encouraged to buy the USPC D manual and study it; all members must be rated to participate in mounted activities. Most today are rated at the D-1 or D-2 level. Some have gone on to achieve C ratings. "These adults study and study and study about parts of the horse, feeding, tack, bandaging, and so on," says Hope. "And when they come for their rating rides, they are very, very serious." In keeping with OPPC philosophy, the ratings focus more on overall horsemanship than on jumping ability. Hope eliminated the requirement for an emergency dismount and threw out the time limit on cross-country to accommodate riders who are uncomfortable galloping. "And our fence heights are more moderate Our A's and B's jump 2 feet 9 inches instead of 3 feet 9 to 4 feet; C's jump 2 feet 6 instead of 2-9 to 3-3; D's jump 18 inches to 2 feet instead of 2-6 to 2-9." Furthermore, a D-1 basically only has to walk-trot and step over poles. A D-2 has to demonstrate the canter, trot low jumps, walk out cross-country, and trot up and down a hill. A D-3 has to canter six fences with a change of direction (not necessarily on the correct lead), canter cross-country, and negotiate a cross-country obstacle. Western and non-jumping English riders negotiate trail-class type obstacles to obtain the higher ratings. But, adds Hope, "there is tremendous validation for lower-level riders. There is no pressure over them. We never say, "OK, now that you're a D-1, your next move is you have to become a D-2. They can stay at D-1 for the rest of their lives and never advance if they don't want to." Growing by Leaps and Bounds Two years later, the Southern Maryland OPPC boasts sixty members. The club hosts three activities a month in the spring, summer, and fall. "The rating rides can be huge, but we close entries for the clinics at fifteen participants. There's an unmounted meeting the second Tuesday of every month (attendance isn't required; we rely heavily on e-mail for communications) and a covered-dish supper on a Friday every third month." At meetings, members listen to guest speakers, watch videotapes, and hold "know-downs." They attend charity rides and clinics about braiding, barrel-racing, dressage, jump-judging, and polocrosse. They have seminars on cleaning tack. They 've even had a night out at Rosecroft Raceway, where they got to ride in the start car. But that 's not all. Another five hundred members are partaking of similar OPPC activities in chapters based elsewhere in Maryland and in New Jersey, Virginia, west Virginia, Georgia, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma, Iowa, and California. OPPC volunteers publish a monthly newsletter and have developed a web site. In another five years, Hope thinks the organization may well grow to five thousand. Will You Be One of Them? To judge by the Southern Maryland chapter, the answer may well be yes if you re a hunter, Western, dressage, pleasure/trail, endurance, combined-training, or gymkhana rider. When you join, your age is most likely to be about forty-five -- although you could be a wet-behind-the-ears twenty-four or a golden-years sixty-seven. If you re like three quarters of your fellow members, you 'll have a full-time job. And if you re like approximately four out of five, you 'll be a woman. You 'll probably have ridden when you were young, and you may be a "pretty darned good rider who -- because of injuries or age -- is no longer overflowing with confidence," says Hope. If (unlike most of your fellow members) you don 't come equipped with average horse knowledge, you 'll "be more inclined to laugh and say, Well, gosh, I 've been doing it wrong all this time than to get disgruntled and storm off. In fact, everybody is willing, if not eager, to get educated. They may have little or no idea how to present themselves at a horse show -- what 's involved in walk-trot-canter, or what dressage is. But they 'll soon be doing a little of it, and having fun." The horses? "We have every breed you can imagine. Some have been owned for two, three, or four years and never had anything done with them. Now they 've been brought out of the back yards and taken to clinics, shows, events, everything. A lot are Western horses, definitely, but we have a lot of nice dressage horses and Thoroughbreds, too. Somebody from Louisiana even e-mailed me recently to say that the people in her barn ride Standardbreds and would that be OK? So we might have to make some provisions for Standardbreds in our classes -- they do move a little bit differently from the hunters." And why not Standardbreds? After all, OPPC has already experimented with redefining many under-saddle English activities to include Western riders. For example, at the Southern Maryland chapter 's first horse trial last summer, the Western riders (and English riders who didn't enjoy jumping) did only two phases dressage, which those who chose to did in Western saddles and were judged accordingly; and cross-country, where they negotiated "trail-type" obstacles set up next to the jumps. A lot of work? "Sure it is," admits Hope. "But when somebody tells me at a clinic or a horse show, I am having the time of my life, or This is a dream come true, it makes all the work worthwhile." Affordability & is as important to Hope as it is to the other members, and she drives a hard bargain when setting up clinics and out-of-town activities. "Before we went on an overnight ride to Gettysburg Battlefield, I told the facility owners, Everybody in our club is on a budget, and we need the best rate you can give us. And they did just that. Each member paid $20 for a four-hour guided session with an informative, wonderful instructor, and $10 for a bedded stall or outside paddock. We brought our own food and hay. Bottom line, it was extremely affordable." ... OPPC 's motto is  & not for the ribbons nor the glory, but for the camaraderie and the memories ...