Gina Miles on Pony Club

Last year eventing website http://www.threedaysthreewaysblog.com/ published a Q&A with Olympic silver-medal event rider Gina Miles. Gina, who conducted a clinic with TVPC last year, is a graduate "A" Pony Clubber and National Examiner. I wanted to share some highlights from her commentary about the rewards of being in Pony Club, thoughts on forging relationships between Pony Club and other organizations, and why she'll never have a groom who hasn't gone through the PC ranks!


Gina with TVPC members in 2010.

From Gina: 
Did you do Pony Club?
Oh yeah. I grew up in Davis, California and I actually had a Pony Club in our area. I must have read about it in a magazine. A flyer got posted at a barn that was about half an hour away. I wanted to be involved with other kids my age with horses. I was older when I joined, about fourteen. My mom ended up founding the Penache Pony Club which is still active there. I loved doing Pony Club and my first couple rallies were on scratch teams at Games and Dressage rallies. Any Pony Club competition I could do I did like Know-down and fox hunting and everything. I went through my A rating. I’m actually national examiner now trying to help and give back when I can. Fit that in among all the other crazy things!

Being involved in Pony Club helps you so much in life even if you choose to keep horses as a recreation.... What really struck me about these young people [in Pony Club] was the people skills they develop. You have to present yourself to the examiner, get feedback about your riding, learn public speaking, and how to express opinon to an adult or person of authority. It develops character and integrity. I preach to all my students to go through Pony Club. The USEA and Pony Club could work together more and help each other out.

I do know that in our area our Young Rider program is really successful and we’ve sent teams to the one- and two-star championships. We’re also trying to fill needs of the beginner novice and novice rider. That’s where I think Pony Club and Young Riders can work together. Pony Club already has that figured out. I kind of think adults have to get out of the way and work together. People involved can feel threatened. People need to put those aside and work together. I don’t know how it’s gonna work but whether it’s opening membership to camps or having a cooperative membership or to join as affiliate or an open door and invitation type policy. No sense trying to recreate the wheel and make more work for everybody.

Any good tips for Pony Clubbers out there for games or getting a perfect turnback score?
I can remember still as clear as a bell the first year I went to championships. We worked so hard to qualify. It’s a big deal to get teams from Califonia to Kentucky. I made dressage but wasn’t good enough to make any other team. I wasn’t good enough for the eventing team!

Our coach, Loris Henry, was president of the USEA about 10-15 years ago and her daughter was on the team. Oh my god did she whip us into shape! We had perfect scores on formals and horse management. I remember getting in there with a toothbrush and saddle soap and toothpicks to clean the stitching. Polishing all of the metal. Attention to detail is so important. When you’re cleaning your tack for the Olympic Games that’s pretty much how you want it! Sarah Williams grooms for me at all the top competitions and we went through Pony Club together. I don’t want a groom that hasn’t been through Pony Club and suffered through formal inspections! There are some things that are a little ridiculous like with the plastic bags over the boots before formals, that might be over the top. But I think they should know how to put in that kind of elbow grease and take pride in what they’re doing.

You can read the interview in its entireity at http://www.threedaysthreewaysblog.com/2010/03/29/olympic-silver-medalist-gina-miles-on-pony-club-family-and-twilight/.