A member of the Cumberland Farmers’ Hunt (South) branch of the Pony Club returned victorious from a trip to the USA.
Amy Veitch, from Newbiggin, Stainton, was part of the UK team taking part in the Pony Club International Alliance quiz exchange 2024.
The United States Pony Clubs Inc (USPC) hosted the exchange in Lexington, Kentucky, at the Kentucky Horse Park, with teams taking part from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United States and the UK.
During the 10-day event, the teams visited Spy Coast Farm, Buffalo Trace Distillery, Ashford Stud, Iroquois Hounds, Keeneland Racetrack, Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital, Churchill Downs — the home of the Kentucky Derby — and the Derby museum, Godolphin Stud, Second Stride Inc and Asbury University. On these trips they got to see a lot of the behind the scenes activities, taste bourbon and watch an operation at the vet hospital.
On the competition days, the teams competed in over five phases — a barn phase, testing individual participants’ equine related skills in a practical setting; a stations phase, testing the teams’ problem solving skills; a mega-room phase, testing the participants’ identification skills; a written phase, testing the knowledge of participants in a range of areas; and a classroom phase, testing the riders’ knowledge in question-based round.
All the teams performed extremely well despite the challenge of working around international differences in the naming of tack and diseases, and other cultural terminology.
The final results saw first place go to the UK team, with Canada second, the USA third, Australia fourth and New Zealand in fifth.
