The USPC was patterned after the British Pony Club. Each club is run by a volunteer District Commissioner and other locally elected officials, but clubs involve entire families. Pony Club is a monument to volunteerism, with thousands of dedicated volunteers nationally. Pony Club graduates, many of whom have gone on to be leaders in the equestrian world as well as other professions, often return to volunteer their services to provide sound instruction to subsequent generations of members. In 1998, there were over 600 pony clubs across the nation, involving more than 12,000 children and their families!
The word "pony" in the title of our organization is used in the British sense, meaning any equine on which a young person is mounted. Members can remain in Pony Club until the last day of the year in which they turn 21 and, in reality, most members are mounted on horses rather than ponies.
Pony Club welcomes riders of all ability levels and helps them progress from being "unrated" members through a series of rating levels designated by numbers and letters: D1, D2, D3, C1, C2, C3, H or B, HA and A levels. Pony Club's riding sports include eventing, foxhunting, dressage, show jumping, polocrosse, mounted games, and vaulting.
The DRHPC's activities include mounted clinics, unmounted meetings, cross-country schooling, summer camp, and competitions.