The USPC has over 600 clubs or centers, and over 10,000 members in the United States. Many programs are offered, such as: eventing, dressage, mounted games, horse management, Quiz, polocrosse, show-jumping, tetrathlon polo, and fox hunting. Also included are unmounted meetings where children are taught about the health and care of their horses, which includes instructions on feeding, shoeing, and veterinary care. More experienced Pony Club members help instruct and assist younger members. In fact, as a Pony Club member progresses through the certifications, teaching of fellow pony club members becomes a prerequisite for promotions. Pony Club has added an adult organization, the Horsemasters Program, for adult volunteers. Horsemasters clubs serve as both a volunteer group to assist with Pony Club activities, as well as its own adult horse riding club.
Certification
The US Pony Clubs also has a certification system. There are four levels of certification from D to A, with A being the highest level.
Competitions
Competitions are held annually for: dressage, show jumping, eventing, mounted games, polocrosse, tetrathlon, and Quiz. The competitions are often referred to as rallies and are team competitions. Rallies that involve the care of horses also involve a great deal of horse management: teams usually have a dedicated Stable Manager and are frequently inspected by the judges for the care and presentation of their horses, tack, and stable areas. Horse management scores are factored into the overall placing of the teams. For the Quiz competition, pony club members' knowledge of horses and their care is tested. There are five components of a Quiz competition: classroom, barn, stations, mega-room, and the written test. In the classroom section, each member is asked questions of a difficulty level corresponding to that member's rating level. Questions cover such areas as equine nutrition, conformation, competition rules, riding skills, veterinary knowledge, and equine first aid. For the barn section, members are taken into a barn and asked to demonstrate their practical, hands-on knowledge. For example, a member might be asked to identify various pieces of equipment and to demonstrate their use. The stations phase is limited only by the creativity of the organizer: questions can be written, games, hands-on or oral, at the Quiz competition organizer's discretion. All questions in the stations phase are answered as a team - these questions are meant to be more difficult in nature than in those of the classroom phase. Mega-room consists of tables with horse-related items displayed on them where each item must be identified by the individuals under a given time limit. The written test consists of 25 questions and is taken independently. The difficulty of the test varies as specified by the competitor's rating level. Rallies are held at the regional level and the top competitors in each sport can then choose to participate in the Pony Club National Championships. National Championships are held every year, except for festival years, in various places. Every three years, Championships are held at the Kentucky Horse Park along with Festival. This event normally brings over 4,000 Pony Club members and has educational clinics in addition to the competitions.
