News | 30 August 2024
The Pony Club International Alliance Quiz Championships
This summer from the 10th – 20th July Hannah Richardson, Amy Veitch, Olivia Stubbs and Ella Bubb were fortunate to have the opportunity to travel to Kentucky in the USA as part of the UK Team for the Pony Club International Alliance (PCIA) Quiz Championships 2024, with Ellie-Mae Tilley as the non-travelling reserve.
PCIA Quiz Championships are a chance for each Pony Club nation to put forward a team and come together to celebrate learning, and showcase their horsemanship knowledge. Teams competing this year were the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States.
This report was written by the Team Captain of the UK PCIA Quiz team, Amy Veitch.
Fundraising
In January, we began the process of fundraising to cover the cost of the trip including flights, accommodation, kit and activities. To do this, we ran a variety of events including fun days, horse shows, sweet sales, and raffles. We were also very grateful to receive donations from friends and family. Without the generosity of everyone who supported us and donated, this once in a lifetime opportunity would not have been possible and we are incredibly grateful to all of the donors.
Departure
On the 10th of July we met up as a team at Heathrow airport, where we received our PCIA kit, and we boarded our flight to Cincinnati, Kentucky before travelling to the University of Kentucky halls where we stayed for the duration of our trip.
Day 1
Our first day started at Asbury University Adventure Course where we enjoyed a variety of team building challenges with the other international competitors before spending the afternoon at Jonabell Farm, the American headquarters of Godolphin! Here we learned about the 13 stallions currently at the farm and how the Thoroughbred breeding programme works. We were shown the trophy room, the immaculate barns, the breeding/reproductive rooms and some of the horses even came out while we were there, including ‘Cody’s Wish’.
Day 2
On our second day we headed to Churchill Downs and the Kentucky Derby Museum where we began our day on the edge of the track watching the horses being worked in. We then learnt about how the racing industry works in Kentucky with Helen Pitts Racing and how they prepare a thoroughbred for the biggest race of its career – the Kentucky Derby. We also went to the stand side, into the paddock, and over to the winners circle! We then had the opportunity to see two of the three “speakeasy” rooms at Churchill Downs before enjoying some time looking around the museum. After spending the morning learning about the career of a racehorse, we then spent the afternoon at Second Stride, a thoroughbred rehoming centre that rehomes up to 160 off-the-track thoroughbreds each year as jumping horses, paddock ponies, trail horses and more!
Day 3
The third day of our exchange saw us heading to the Rood & Riddle Equine Hospital, a world leading practice that deals with between 4,000-5,000 surgeries each year! We were fortunate to have a tour of their facilities which included multiple surgery suites, a podiatry centre, Neonatal ICU, Adult Critical Care Ward, MRI, CT, PET Scan, Nuclear Scintigraphy and many more!
Day 4
Day four was dedicated to spending time with our teams exploring the local area. We started by heading Kentucky Horse Park, the home of the Kentucky 5* and also the United States Pony Club (USPC) National Championships. We enjoyed exploring the park and getting up close to the permanent 5* jumps before heading into downtown Lexington where we swam at a local pool and watched the football!
Day 5
Our fifth day started early as we headed to Keenland racecourse to watch the thoroughbreds work and also enjoyed a tour of the 800 acre site. We were very lucky to receive an invitation to explore their broadcasting and controls room before heading to the winners circle. We then travelled to the Buffalo Trace Distillery where our tour guide showed us around the facility, and we learnt all about the historic Bourbon industry- did you know 80% of the world’s Bourbon is produced in Kentucky?
Day 6-8
Days 6 to 8 of our exchange were the PCIA Quiz Championships days held at the Kentucky Horse Park. USPC hosted the competition alongside their national competition. The quiz ran over 3 days and had 5 different sections, these were ‘Barn’ which was a series of practical stations on the yard, ‘MegaRoom’ – a large identification round, ‘Stations’ which involves team questions and games such as charades and taboo, an individual written exam paper set at the Pony Club test level that you have achieved and ‘Classroom’ – where we sat in rows and stood up one at a time, where we were asked questions at our Pony Club test level.
Day 6-8 Evenings
After each day of the competition, we enjoyed embracing the festivities. On the first evening, we attended the USPC opening ceremony. We were welcomed into the Kentucky Rolex Arena with all of the USPC regions and the other four international teams and paraded around the arena with our UK flags. The second evening was spent at Iroquois Hounds, who are the primary Master Hunters of the region. We had the opportunity to spend time with their litter of puppies and their retired hounds before unwinding in the sunshine and learning about the hunt’s role in the local community, including checking fencing and stock and how they take care of their hounds.
Prize Giving
After the final day of competition, we came to the prize giving where we were delighted to collect our first place rosettes and celebrate the competition and everyone’s achievements with our fellow national and international competitors.
Day 9
After three intense days of competition, our final day of the exchange was spent exploring Ashford Stud, home of Coolmore America where we were lucky enough to be taken through the breeding barn and the stallion stables, meeting not one but two triple crowned champions in American Pharoah and Justify.
Gala Dinner
We then headed back to our accommodation to get ready for the International Exchange Gala Dinner held at USPC HQ at Kentucky Horse Park. We were able to celebrate each team, their achievements and the amazing and unique pony club journeys we have all been on to get to this point. We celebrated the fantastic international friendships we had built and reminisced about the amazing opportunities we were so grateful to have experienced as part of the Pony Club International Alliance Quiz Championships.
Thank you!
We were also able to express our thanks to our USPC hosts who arranged all of the events and experiences as well as our wonderful Pony Club CEO Marcus Capel, Chairman Tim Vestey and former Vice Chairman and UK PCIA representative Clare Valori who travelled out to support us.
Thank you Amelia
Our biggest thank you went to our team chaperone Amelia Morris-Payne who has been there for us every step of the way. From the selection process last Autumn all the way to the end of this incredible trip Amelia has been nothing short of a bundle of fun and we will be forever grateful for her support.
Thank you to our Branches
We also thanked our branches in the UK who have been our biggest supporters for many years and got us to this point. They have not only been amazing in helping with fundraising and pre planning but also in all the training that led us to being able to compete overseas.
- Amy Veitch – Cumberland Farmers Hunt South
- Ella Bubb – Crawley and Horsham Hunt
- Hannah Richardson – Old Berkshire Hunt
- Olivia Stubbs – West Lancashire County
Non-Travelling Reserve: Ellie Mae Tilley – Atherstone Hunt
We are honoured to have represented the UK Pony Club and are eternally grateful to everyone that has supported us through kind words, donations, kit contributions and provided us with thousands of words of wisdom along the way.
We are all incredibly proud to be members of The Pony Club and will be forever grateful to this wonderful organisation for offering us this once in a lifetime opportunity. We have made memories and built friendships to last a lifetime.
Want to read more about our journey? Follow the link below to our Facebook group where we posted what happened each day in detail!
Congratulations!
Once again congratulations to the UK Pony Club International Quiz Exchange Team for their incredible achievements in Kentucky!
To get to where they are today, each of these members have taken their Pony Club Tests to the highest level they could (AH and above), and kept up with their Pony Club Training and Volunteering, taking part in both Pony Club Quiz and Horse and Pony Care.
The PCIA run an online International Quiz, which will take place in December 2025 Please keep an eye out on the link below for application information.