Joanne Forster

Pony Club Officer

Hello Everyone

I started endurance riding in 2009 as it appeared to be something that both myself and my ‘then’ 9 year old daughter Ayla could do together and I also felt that this would get my ‘quite challenging mare’ to be more ‘forwards thinking’ and braver in her other work.  It didn’t take me many rides to recognise the added benefits of endurance riding in the overall training of the horse & rider.
Away from Endurance riding I work within the equestrian industry as a BHS registered instructor, UKCC level II Equestrian coach, Centered Riding Instructor, Horse Handler, Qualified Life Coach, Saddle Fitter and Pony Club instructor.  I am passionate about education and I soon recognised that I had discovered an equestrian discipline that could help many of the horses & riders that I work with on a daily basis as not only does the sport help form a fantastic relationship between horse & rider but from a bio-mechanical point of view it can also encourage the horse to travel ‘straight & forward’ – something that we strive to achieve in dressage.
In March 2011 I attended the ‘Pony Club Annual Instructors conference’ to find that the majority of the day was focused upon ‘Endurance Riding within Pony Club’ and after thoroughly enjoying the conference I set out to see how I could help ’The Pony Club’ to promote Endurance Riding within the Pony Club branches and also to help my local Endurance Group to deal with the ‘Pony Club’ side of endurance.  This is when I became Pony Club liaison officer for Durham & Teesside Endurance Group; I recognised that the committee members of Durham & Teesside EGB already had enough workload to deal with without me sending a load of additional Pony Club young riders and their paperwork in their direction, therefore I offered to help out.
I will often be seen at the rides on my coloured horse Aurora and most of the time my daughter Ayla will be with me as she loves the rides and is busy qualifying her ponies for the Pony Club Endurance championships and gaining her mileage for her ‘Pony Club mileage badges’.  If you would like to learn more about Endurance Riding within ‘The Pony Club’ please contact me.