Wednesday, Aug. 27, 2008
The 50th anniversary celebration of the Redland Hunt Pony Club was a reunion of sorts, as more than 200 members and former members gathered at Avalon Farm in Sandy Spring on Sunday to remember a half-century of riding, competing and caring for horses — a common thread that links them together and to the life lessons they learned as part of the club.
The club has spawned Olympic medalists and prominent community members alike.
For one family, the anniversary was an occasion to draw together three generations of "pony clubbers."
Catherine Holden, 75, Vanessa Swartz, 43, and Courtney Swartz, 9, have been involved with the Redland Hunt Pony Club since Swartz showed an interest in horses from a young age.
"I just loved horses," she said. "I actually got my mom [Catherine Holden] involved."
Swartz went on to become a highly decorated rider in the dressage discipline, and Holden became involved in virtually every aspect of the club other than riding. Ironically, she said, she's never been on a horse in her life.
Courtney, Swartz's daughter, has gotten involved with the club in the past year and Holden couldn't be more proud.
"She loves it," Holden said. "It's almost second nature for her."
Courtney said her favorite part of the club is jumping the horses and the friends she has met.
Holden added that Pony Club, a national program with many local branches, is a place for young people between the ages of 7 and 25 to learn valuable lessons that translate well to the rest of their lives.
"We have an absolutely fabulous program here," Holden said. "Kids learn about responsibility, sportsmanship. It teaches kids to be adults."
Although there is some attention to competition, Pony Club is equally focused on teaching kids about caring for their horses and the responsibility that goes along with it.
"I bet 75 percent of the people here never get on a horse now," Holden said. "But they all have such wonderful stories."
Redland Hunt Pony Club alumni who attended the anniversary celebration included David O'Connor, a gold medalist at the Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, in 2004, and Larry Giammo, former mayor of Rockville.
"It's like Little League in a lot of ways," O'Connor, 46, of The Plains, Va., said of Pony Club.
O'Connor competes in eventing, and is the president of the U.S. Equestrian Federation. He joined Redland Hunt Pony Club when he was 8 or 9 years old, he said, and rode with the club for about 10 years.
He said there are lessons he learned in Pony Club that stuck with him and helped him throughout his career. "The sportsmanship side was huge, and so was the attention to detail."
Giammo, 44, was a member of Redland Hunt Pony Club from age 12 or 13 until he was 21, he said.
"It's a good community to be a part of," he said. "These are good people."
He said that aside from it being a "great experience all around," participating in Pony Club taught him about taking responsibility for something greater than himself.
"You have to be team-oriented. Those are skills that you take with you for the rest of your life," he said.
He added that he worried about the encroachment of suburban development into open riding area, as did many others at the anniversary.
For the past 47 years, the club has been headquartered at Avalon Farm, which has been owned by the Ligon family. A brochure with a history of the club passed out Sunday says that when the Redland Hunt Pony Club was founded in 1958, "[o]ne could ride cross-country for hours and probably days in almost any direction."
That is no longer the case, and some worry that could put the future of the club in jeopardy.
"The suburbs have taken up a lot of farmland and it's hard to be serious about riding anymore," Giammo said.
Mickey Skipper has been National Pony Club's Maryland regional supervisor for 27 years and said it is difficult now to find places to ride. Liability insurance is often a factor now more so than it was in the past, he said.
And as far as a solution to finding a place to ride, he said, "I don't know if there is one."
Parental support is vital for Pony Club to survive, he said. In that regard, Redland Hunt Pony Club stands a very good chance of being around for another 50 years, he said.
"This has turned out to be one of the stronger chapters," he said.
Holden agreed, saying she doesn't know if there would be anywhere else for the club to go if it weren't for Avalon Farm. But she's positive about the future.
"I hope it will continue on forever," she said.
