Pony_club

Jeff Green | Oct 18, 2007

Local Students, Champions at Pony Club National Quiz

Anne Marie Duarte (right) and Clara Sellers (left), senior students at Sydenham High School, have returned from Edmonton with individual and team National Championships from the Canadian Pony Club National Quiz.

Pony Club is an international organization that provides education for equestrians under the age of 21. Emphasis is on building both life skills and equine knowledge through horse care, team competitions, educational clinics and a graduated testing of skills and knowledge.

Clara Sellers lives on Loughborough Lake, and has two horses at home. She joined the Kingston Pony Club five years ago. She says the club is a “really diverse organization” that exposes riders to many different events, such as jumping, eventing, cross country, dressage and newer sports such as the quadrathlon (riding, running, swimming, shooting).

Sellers specialty is dressage, which is not one of the Pony club’s priorities, so she participates in dressage competitions with other organizations. She is also somewhat of a whiz at the pony quiz.

Pony Club Quiz tests theoretical and practical knowledge of horsemanship and equine disciplines. Regional Quiz competitions qualify Pony Club members to participate in the annual National Quiz. Members from the United Counties Pony Club [Ottawa area], Rideau Lakes Pony Club [Smiths Falls], Land o' Lakes Pony Club [Perth] and the Kingston & Region Pony Club represented our region at the National Championships in Edmonton on the Thanksgiving weekend.

Duarte and Sellers' four-member team took first place in the highest competitive division of Pony Club Quiz – Level A/B. Duarte placed 5th in the overall individual rankings, and Sellers placed 1st , thereby becoming the individual A/B Canadian Champion of Pony Club Quiz.

In August, Sellers represented Canada as part of the four-member Canadian Quiz team at the International Pony Club competition in Lexington, Kentucky. The Canadian team took top honours there, winning over the American and British teams.