Pillars of the Pony Club

Many of us covet those gold-dust ponies that pass from one family to another throughout their Pony Club days without ever coming on to the market. Tessa Waugh tracks down a few gems

- Tessa Waugh

ANYONE who knows about teaching children to ride will tell you that the pony is the key. The right ones will nurse the most anxious rider into chest-beating confidence. The wrong one can quickly take them back to square one.

No surprises then, that the best Pony Club ponies very rarely go on the market. Getting hold of them requires focus; staking them out at shows and hunter trials and acting quickly to secure that vital first refusal. The timing might be out, but sometimes you simply have to grab them when you can.

This was the case for Tori Haworth when her mother, a former district commissioner (DC) of the Lord Leconfield Hunt branch of the Pony Club, discovered that 12hh Wolfie was coming up for sale.

“I wasn’t sure I was ready for a pony,” Tori says. “Leo [Tori’s eldest child] was only three, but my mother told me Wolfie was too good to let go.”

It quickly became clear to Tori why her mother had singled Wolfie out.

“He’s one of those ponies you could trust with your life,” she says. “They were all off the leading rein before they should be. Leo, now seven, jumps on him bareback and hoons around the field. He took him to a race rally at Paul Nicholls’ yard and rode him on the gallops.

“Holly, who is now six, can do a little dressage test on him and has taken him to camp and the local shows. She had a lovely day’s hunting with the Wilton last season.”