A super busy summer and on to winter!

MPPC certainly outdid ourselves this summer!  We hosted a very successful D Camp where young members of the region came together, with their horses, for four days of riding, fun and more fun!  We held camp at McKnight's wonderful farm in Turner, OR where the kids could play in the creek, practice on the very friendly but challenging cross country course, and camp out with s'mores and great company. 

We had terrific instruction, both mounted and unmounted.  Each group designed and performed a quadrille, worked on stadium jumping and got tons of xc experience.  Dr. Wickliffe did a great hands on lesson with leg dissection and one of the moms volunteered to teach us how to make paper and the results were amazing!  The learning was terrific and the fun was even more terrific. 

The very next weekend we went on to host the first ever Area 1 Tetrathlon Rally.  This was organized by one of our own members for her National Youth Board project.  Area 1 consists of all the clubs in Oregon, NW, Inland Empire, Big Sky and Alaska regions.  We had kids from Oregon, Washington and Alaska attend and it was a great learning experience for all of us, hosts and competitors.  Tetrathlon is the perfect rally for those that travel a long way.  It's running, swimming, show jumping and target shooting.  The rules allow sharing of a horse so those that came from far away got to share a horse that was provided by other competitors.  Talk about the spirit of sportsmanship!  You loan your horse to someone you don't know, and potentially someone that can "beat" you in the overall placing....but that's part of what makes tet so fun, everyone really bonds and has a great time. 

We're now moving indoors for the rainy season and xc riding comes to an end for the year.  We've got a revamped instructional program and we're really excited about our plans! 

Stay tuned for more news....

It's still trying to be spring!

After a warm, sunny day yesterday it's back to cool and wet again.  Some day our horses will get out of the mud and  rain!  Even though it's not summer yet, we're already planning our summer fun.  Mary's Peak will be hosting D Camp again this year at Nancy McKnight's great place in Turner, OR.  Last year we had about 40 kids and horses at camp and it was incredibly fun with riding, playing in the creek, arts and crafts, and more riding.  The most amazing thing was the arts and crafts where the kids did quilt blocks and a mom sewed them into a quilt to give Mrs. McKnight.  Another event is being planned by one of our older members, an inter-regional tetrathlon rally.  That will also be held at Mrs. McKnight's in August. 

This month we had a great unmounted lesson on parts of the horse and conformation.  Madison's pony was very patient as she got labels taped to most of her body parts!  There were a variety of horses to look at and compare their conformation.  

We would also like to welcome Emily to the club!  Emily and her pony Sophie are excited to join the fun of Pony Club.  

It's trying to be spring!

What a totally crazy day today!  We had planned to have an unmounted lesson to practice our bandaging and then ride in the outdoor arena.  The weather report was for some rain, but we're in Oregon, what do you expect?  If we let a little rain stop us we would never ride!  Well, it wasn't just a LITTLE rain!  Downpour, wind, more downpour....so we just spent more time bandaging!  Our little ones got some great practice on what they need to know; bell boots, splint boots and then some hands on practice so they'll be experts later on.  Our C level kids got to wrap, wrap and wrap some more! 

So far this year we've had a very active group of kids.  Claire, Michelle and Clare all qualified to go to Championships in Lexington, KY this summer in Quiz.  Yippee!  It will be very exciting for them!  Maggie attended the annual conference in Nashville as a part of the National Youth Board.  Marshall headed to Palm Springs to compete as a member of the U.S. Men's World Cup Pentathlon Team.  We are proud of all our kids!

We don't have anyone competing in the regional Show Jumping rally next month, I think we're all a bit exhausted right now.  But, in May we will be at the Dressage Rally at Devonwood and then it will be summer and things will get so busy we'll wonder where the time went!

May spring find us all back in the saddle more!

A busy new year!

Things are certainly busy for all our club members!  One would think that winter would be a time when we slow down and relax but not the members of MPPC.  Clare, Michelle, Madison and Claire are all busy studying for Quiz Rally.  All but Madison hope to qualify for Championships this year and if Madison were old enough she'd probably want to go to!  They get together to study and Claire makes the trip up north to study with her Sr. D team.  Maggie just returned from Nashville where she attended the Annual Conference as a member of the National Youth Board.  She represents Area 1 which is comprised of the Pony Clubs in the following regions; Oregon, NW, Inland Empire, Big Sky and Alaska.  She participates in a monthly phone conference with the board and is working on an inter-regional tetrathlon rally as her NYB project.  Tarra is busy with high school basketball as well as riding.  Marshall has probably the busiest schedule with high school swimming and training for the World Cup Pentathlon (fencing, swimming, running, shooting, show jumping) later this month.  MPPC is proud of all our kids! 

There will be no rest for us once spring starts.  First the show jumping rally, then the tet rally in the NW Region, then on to the dressage rally.  What could be more fun than kids and horses?