News

November 2019

We are delighted to announce the election of a new Pony Club committee at our Annual General Meeting on 4th November 2019. Our new committee members represent a nice balance of seasoned equestrian professionals, Pony Club veterans and parents of current and upcoming Pony Clubbers with connections to all riding centres in Hong Kong.

Following Tara Delaney’s resignation as District Commissioner, the new committee has appointed an Executive team comprising of HKPC District Commissioner, HKPC Chief Instructor and HKPC Secretary. We would like to express our gratitude to Tara for her many years of service at the head of HKPC and wish her family all the best for the future back in the U.K.

The new HKPC committee:

• Elise McAuley – Newly appointed HKPC District Commissioner
  
• Sarah Vandre – Re-appointed HKPC Secretary
  
• Jo Eling – Newly appointed HKPC Chief Instructor
  
• Sarah Corner (General Manager – Equestrian at Clear Water Bay Equestrian Centre)
• Deborah Coulson (Club Manager and Senior Instructor at Lo Wu Saddle Club)
• Chris Dobby 
• Liz Leung Lumsden 
• Louise Sanderson 
• Joelle Scot
• Valerie Mangundjaja

The 2019 Inter-Pacific Exchange between HK, USA, Cananda, Australia and NZ took place this summer in Hong Kong (you can read more about it on our Inter-Pacific Exchange page) with both main competitions being held at Beas River Equestrian Centre.

The Hong Kong team members were:
Annabelle Dyson
Gabby Thomas
Claudia Wrobel
Matilda Marchand.

All the teams had a fantastic time and made plenty of new horsey friends from all round the world. Here is what Annabel has to say about the IPE.

During the Hong Kong IPE 2019, we gained the opportunity to meet other horse-lovers from different pony clubs across the world. Over the 2 weeks that international pony clubbers from Canada, the USA, Australia and New Zealand stayed in HK, we indulged in cultural activities from eating dim sum, going out on a junk, visiting Stanley market and temple street, going to Sai Wan beach and rock pools. We spent a lot of time making new friends and we were able to learn about life abroad and the differences in all of our pony clubs.

Alongside the cultural activities, we visited various riding schools around HK to give them a taster of what the equestrian world is like out in Hong Kong, before taking part in the Bauhinia Cup dressage challenged in mixed teams and the finale - the Nation’s Cup whereby the USA emerged victorious.

Being able to experience life as a tourist in my home country was so much fun, but undoubtedly the biggest highlight of this experience was getting to know so many amazing people/passionate riders, allowing me to make close friendships with people around the globe.

Welcome back everyone, we hope you have had a good summer and didn't suffer too much from the destruction caused by Typhoon Mangkhut. All the riding stables managed to get back to normal operations very quickly and thankfully no horses were harmed in the storm.

TMPRS RENOVATIONS

We are starting the new season with quite a lot of changes. The biggest physical change is that because of the renovation work underway at Tuen Mun Public Riding School where we are based, we will have no physical office until about October 2019. 

CAMPS

Also due to the renovations, our camps will have to be a little different this year as during the week there can be no riding between 10am and 5pm. In order for Tuen Mun to agree to let us still run our camps we have also had to bring the maximum numbers for each camp down to 12. We have put together a plan so that we can at least go forward with the camps and have added an extra one to the calendar to make up for the loss of numbers.

Autumn Camp October 16th to 18th  Cancelled due to lack of instructors and ponies

CNY Camp February 5th to 7th

Easter Camp April 17th to 19th

WEBSITE 

We are also moving to a new membership management system and with it a new website, if there is anything you would like to see on the website that is not there we would love to hear from you. Please be patient with us while we get it all up and running, I'm sure there will be the odd glitch!

MEMBERSHIP PAYMENTS

Due to the TMPRS Renovations we are not going to be able to offer as many events as normal this season. We have therefore decided to bring down the membership cost this year. 

New Member Subscriptions: $470 (down from $620)

Renewal Member Subscriptions $320 (down from $450)

PAYMENT SYSTEM

We are also now using PayPal for membership payments and events. This will make our accounting much simpler and also a much better user experience for you we hope. You do not need a PayPal account to pay, there is the option to pay either with your account or to use a credit card.

INTER-PACIFIC EXCHANGE

In July 2019 the HKPC will be hosting the Inter-Pacific Exchange, an international cultural and competitive exchange that is held every two years between Hong Kong, the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The 2017 IPE was hosted by the USA and our team spent 2 weeks in North and South Carolina. Next year it will be our turn to host again.

We are starting to put together a long list of riders for the team who need to be between 17 and 25yrs old and competent jumping 100cm on a borrowed horse. For more information please see our IPE page.

We will also be looking for volunteers to help while the teams are here. We will be running two main competitions but also arranging various other activities at different riding schools.

RALLIES

We are hoping to get some Stable Management rallies and Efficiency Tests organised as soon as we can get dates from our instructors, we will likely be holding rallies just at CEEC and LWSC this year as the HKJC is bringing in new charges that would mean we have to put up the cost of the Rallies, something we do not want to do.

If you are interested in doing a rally, or are waiting to do your Test, please email our secretary Sarah Vandre and let her know.

We hope to see you at one of our events soon.

Tara

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Tara Delaney
District Commissioner
HKPC