ON Sunday, March 8th, over 100 Pony Club coaches attended the annual Irish Pony Club national training day in the Mullingar Equestrian Centre.

Kay Nolan, incoming training committee chairperson, welcomed the attendees and thanked her fellow committee members, the IPC office staff and Fiona Cloke for their work in organising the training day. The last-named was instrumental in organising the packs, given to each coach, which contained information on Pony Club tests and other relevant matters.

The theme of the day was communication. In the morning, Sally Corscadden, a Horse Sport Ireland Level 3 coach and a great supporter of the Pony Club, demonstrated how to coach riders from D test level up to A test. She showed how to create exercises relevant to different ages and levels of experience. The demonstration riders were from the Meath Hunt and Ward Union Branches of the IPC.

The afternoon session consisted of different stations with the coaches moving from one to the other.

Ciaran McGrath spoke about coaching riders who may have learning difficulties and how to communicate with them; Helen Nolan, Laura Whyte and Susan Patterson’s topic was the relevance of Pony Club horse care in today’s equestrian world; Caroline Neville addressed the subject of best practice for coaches; Anne O’Connor and Gemma Ferrar covered changes to the Pony Club tests and which suggestions from coaches had been included. Finally, Fiona Cloke and Gillian Atkinson held a question and answer session.