‘E’ Test to ‘A’ Test

‘E’ Test to ‘A’ Test

I joined East Sussex Pony Club as soon as I turned 4, which in those days was the youngest you could be, having watched Angus (my big brother) at fun days I was desperate to join in and start to collect the mini badges that they worked on. E test was followed by D and D+, then whilst working towards my C test we were on our way back from a cross country clinic, when we saw Francis Whittington in the service station, Fabbes was with us and she told me to go and ask him for his autograph, he wrote this note for me which has helped inspire me to do just that go all the way to A, thank you Francis for the inspiration.

We are very lucky in our Club/ Area to have some amazing instructor’s and a full calendar of clinics, as soon as I passed one test I started attending clinics for the next even though it was going to be 2 years before I would sit the test, Penny Sangster always said you could never start early enough and it was steady improvement and knowledge that you needed, I like to think I proved her right . Also there is nothing better than being out on your pony with your friends learning to improve your riding and their way of going after all Pony Club friends are the best.

Pony Club has given me some amazing opportunities along the way and friends all over the country, I have been fortunate to represent the Club at Champs for Mounted Games, Dressage, Show Jumping, Eventing and Tetrathlon, I have show jumped at Royal Windsor and represented Southern England at Tetrathlon, all whilst working towards my A test so it does not need to be all hard work ! Now I plan to start coaching and hoping to help others achieve .

Good luck it is possible.

Duncan Morgan