Pony Club Season Coming To an End

Show Hunter. This is a very popular event and for the third year in a row our riders took out first place – well done everyone!

Well, with the end of daylight savings, the Pony Club is wrapping up its season. It’s been a bag of mixed emotions this year, from a season that started off very slowly... and wet…to now finally having our grounds in amazing condition with sunshine just as we’re wrapping everything up and closing the gates!

The Pony Club wants to say a big thank you to everyone in the community who has supported the endeavour to save the grounds by keeping to the permitted areas and respecting the numerous grounds open/ground closed changes! By doing this it means that the Club has been in a prime position to open with sunshine, and has been able to create riding spaces and events not only for its members, but also for the local and wider riding community. A big change this year has been the appointment of Rebecca Verhoeven as grounds manager on the committee. You will see Rebecca and her son Matt at the club most days and she has managed to keep a keen eye over every inch and detail on the grounds, including the Vector works, to make sure the riding conditions are safe and enjoyable for everyone.

In March the Club ran a taste of HOY (Horse of the Year) event, as a fundraiser for the Equestrian Sports NZ (ESNZ) relief fund for Hawkes Bay. Horse of the Year is normally held in the beautiful polo showgrounds of

Hastings and marks the finale of the horse calendar. After two years of Covid cancellations, everyone was hoping to enjoy the amazing event in 2023, but sadly Cyclone Gabrielle had different ideas. Everyone in the equestrian community was shocked by the images and terrible stories of loss, and the Club wanted to see what it could do to help. The CVPC taste of Hoy event was quite a show and attracted riders young and old from all over and managed to raise $670 for the ESNZ relief fund and in discussions with them they will donate these funds to a local Pony Club in the Hawkes Bay.

At the taste of HOY event the Club also hosted the interclub Show Hunter competition where pony clubs from all over Waitemata and Rodney compete in the discipline of

In April the NZ Pony Club Eventing Championships will be held in Taupo – this is a prestigious event, and the places are hotly contested as only a handful of riders are selected across the whole of the Waitemata Rodney Area. This year two Coatesville pony club riders have been selected – Mia Cadwallader and Phoebe Webster. Both girls have been training diligently all year and everyone in Coatesville is super proud to have two riders from the club represented – we wish them the best of luck and know they’ll do an awesome job!

The end of the season is all about certificates and this year the riders have been hard at work preparing for their exams. The junior riders have been sitting exams in March and the Seniors will be sitting them after the April School holidays.

April 5th and 6th will be the last rallies of the season, and are a celebration of the year with fun and games; chocolate-themed of course, and then things will become calm on the grounds. The Club’s AGM and Prizegiving will be held in May.

The Club will be opening its registrations for the next season in August and looks forward to welcoming back all its members as well as any new riders who join the Club.