Quiz Rally

Hey! Been really busy lately and haven't had much to say but now I do!

I am a C-1 in my local Pony Club and love it most of the time. Pony Club is an amazing experience for any young rider. Even if they just stick with it for a year. PC isn't for everyone, but it does have something to teach everyone. In just a year I learned the basics of eventing, rode over some of the best cross country courses in the area, trained with extremely high quality trainers, went fox hunting and learned how to more effectivly ride my horse. While this can be learned on ones own with personaly trainers, I doubt it could be done for the prices we paid. $20 dollars to ride in a clinic with a trainer that normally charges a couple hundred per rider. Free use of private cross country courses. Free rides with the local hunt club. Trainers and land owners donate their time and land to PC as a way of giving back to the horse community and it is VERY appreciated. PC also offers many things that cannot be easily learned anywhere else. Discovering your best learning style, switch riding on tons of horses, managing 4 unknown competition horses at a rally/show, teaching younger riders in unmounted and mounted topics, keeping a record book of your horse, learning how to discuss what you feel as you ride and how you think you can correct mistakes, making a plan for riding a course or pattern and sticking to it and, of coursae, studying for ratings. Lots and lots of book learning. It truely is a one of a kind experience and I think any young riders should give it a chance.

Anyway, I was able to partake in one of PC's special, one of a kind events: Quiz Rally. It is designed to test pony clubbers on a variety of horse subjects. They have to know about anything and everything pertaining to horses and pony club. Names of bits along with their uses and where they are legal in competition. Different tack that many girls, including myself, have only ever read about. Parasites, unsoundnesses, conformation, shoes, competition rules, horse management questions. Everything. The competition has between 4 and 5 different phases that test different knowledge and allow the competitiors a chance to earn points with questions at their level or up to two ratings above theirs.

The first phase was the in the 'barn'. This was actually the parking lot of the school where two horses had been brought for the rally. We were asked 2 individual questions and 1 team question. I asked for 2 C-2 level questions. My questions were to name 4 other things needed in lunging besides a bridle, lunge whip and horse. I said gloves, longe line, helmet and boots. A watch was another correct answer. My second question was to locate where side bone would be and to say whether it was an unsoundness or not and what caused it. The team question had a dificulty level of our highest rated team mate (c-3) and it was to name every bone in the front and back legs from top to bottom for 20 points. We got 10 out of the 20. Apparently the shoulder is part of the leg. Ooops...

Next we had the Mega-Room phase. This is all about matching. You had to match the item on the table to the name of the iteam on your sheet of paper. You had 3 minutes at each table. The first table was feed. It had alfafa, coastal hay, staw, timothy hay, feceus hay, flax seed, beet pulp and 3 other iteams om the table. I mixed up timothy with feceus hay. The second and sixth table were pieces of tack. I have never handled any of it. There was a crumper, german martingale, bit guard and other rarely used iteams. I got 3 incorrect at table 2 and 4 wrong at table 5. The third and forth table were bits. Some were common, others not so much. Many were not allowed in competition. Dr. bristols, french links, half moon, curb bit, waterford, double twisted wire, cork screw, chifney rearing bit and even the small snaffel used in a double bridle. I got 3 wrong at the third table and none incorrect at the forth table. The fifth table was boots and pads. Half pads, theraputic pads, riser pads, theraputic pads, SMB, splint boots and brushing boots. I got all of those right. The seventh and eighth table were shoes and farrier tools. Not my stong point becaue I've never owned a horse that was shod and have only handled horses with generic un-special shoes. 4 correct. I did slightly better with the farrier tools. 6 correct.

Team mate at the second bit table in Mage room:

The thrid phase was classroom. They give you 4 different subjects and you get one question on each subject. You choose the dificulty level. It is all about speaking what you know and being able to communicate.

The fourth phase was stations. You work as a team to complete harder tasks. Match what bits or tack iteas are or are not legal in different competitions. Parasites and their scientifc names and where they are located in the horse. Vaccinations and when they should be given. My team did alright. Not amazing but not horrible either.

The possibe fifth phase was a written test that we did not do. Still no idea what it is like.

I finished the day with a score of 108, 4th highest. The highest were 135, 130 and 129 but they were in other divisions. I had the highest score for my division (4 people but one had been studying for months and one was 2 ratings higher and in intense training). My team was the only one in the Senior C division so we got the first place ribbon as well. I took the high score for my team in the classroom and barn phase. The day ended with 2 small awards for the team high scores, 1 team blue ribbon and 1 individual 1st place medal. All this went together to give me a spot at Nationals in the fall. I have a guarenteed place Nationals for Quiz Rally. Still shocked.

I have not aceepted that place and will not until after show jumping rally in a month. I am hoping to qualify for Horse 1 and go to Nationals with Jazz to compete with top pony clubbers in the Eastern US. We'll see what happens!!!