Pony Club UK (Warks)

Based at the Lowlands Equestrian Centre in Warwickshire, “The Pony Club is a voluntary organisation founded in England in 1929. It has now expanded internationally and Pony Club branches can be found worldwide. It is one of 16 organisations that form the British Equestrian Federation.” No doubt young riders thoroughly enjoy the Pony Club. We have no comments to make on horse-riding per se, but we suspect few of those young people will understand or be aware from the outset that the various Pony Clubs up and down the country are funnelling them into hunting. Google ‘pony clubs and hunts’ and it becomes quickly apparent that every branch of the Pony Club UK (PCUK) feeds directly into a hunt (the event in the attached image, for example, is advertised on the South and West Wilts Hunt Pony Club page). The Tedworth Hunt (we could have chosen any hunt to make this point) say that “Local hunts have played an important part in the history of the Pony Club. Many Pony Club branches were formed as a way of teaching children how to care for and ride their ponies out hunting”. Hunting is a dying ‘activity’, and while young riders or their parents may not necessarily be aware of it many hunters are working to keep its traditions and paraphernalia intact in readiness for a longed-for repeal of the Hunting Act and the killing of foxes to become legal again: on that point it’s worth noting that current Pony Club UK  Chair Tim Vestey was a Director of the Countryside Alliance from 2014 -2018 and is a current Director of the Puckeridge Hunt (brother Robin is a Master of Foxhounds and President of the Thurlow Hunt Supporters Club). Introducing children to hunting at a young age is a key strategy in that longer-term plan (this was discussed in a Horse and Hound forum thread here). In an article in 2023 looking at the Pony Club’s links with hunting, Amateur Brain Surgery wrote the following: “We believe there should be a comprehensive drains-up investigation at the PCUK to dig out the charity’s fox hunting roots and completely change its focus.” At a bare minimum Pony Club UK should disassociate itself with hunts that have criminal convictions – which given how many do, would lead to that much-needed ‘change of focus’ anyway.