Sport
7 August, 2023
Maryborough pony club building towards 60th anniversary celebrations
All horses may celebrate their birthday at the start of August, but for the Maryborough and District Horse and Pony Club, there’s many more reasons to celebrate this month, with record membership numbers as they head towards planning for their...
All horses may celebrate their birthday at the start of August, but for the Maryborough and District Horse and Pony Club, there’s many more reasons to celebrate this month, with record membership numbers as they head towards planning for their 60th anniversary in 2024.
Formed in 1964 by multiple families, including Angela and Clarrie King, Cyril Martin and Bill and Dot Leech, the goal was to establish a pony club in Maryborough, which has maintained success for 59 years.
Recently, the club has roared past its membership record, with the club now boasting over 60 members.
Now, Pony Club president Pat Hedger is aiming to bring past members together for their 60th anniversary in May next year, and the club is also planning to put together a book celebrating its members from years past.
“What we would like to do is have as many past pony club members come on the day in May. We’ll have a half-day rally and a big afternoon tea. That’s why we want to get it out there, as a lot of people don’t have social media. People can contact us and we can start getting invitations out,” she said.
“We would love to do a book for the past members, with contributions from what they learned from pony club, the years they were there and a little bit about themselves.
“That’s in the works at the moment, we’re trying to contact as many people as possible. We’ve had some interest on social media, but we need to push forward for our 60th anniversary.”
Hedger said the pony club was all about family values, which has allowed them to break their membership record in recent months.
“People have been able to come and rock up, and have loved the way that we run our rallies and our club, and have joined off the back of that. They have a lot of fun,” she said.
“Most of our instructors have been around for a while. My son, Clinton, started at the pony club when he was five, and went through until he was 21. He still comes around and instructs at Maryborough half a dozen times a year, as well as in New South Wales.”
Crucially, being able to continue through COVID was critical in allowing the pony club to continue to thrive, according to Hedger.
“We were lucky enough that we were still able to have rallies all through COVID, but spread them out so that we didn’t have all our kids there at once, and we managed. We didn’t miss a rally,” she said.
In the meantime, the pony club is now planning their next horse trials, which is one of the biggest days on their calendar.
“We’ve got our horse trials coming up on August 27, which is normally a big day,” Hedger said.
For details, search for the club on Facebook.