| To: Company Members, Branch Officials, Centre Proprietors, Centre Coordinators, Centre Committee, Pony Club Staff, Pony Club Members |
| Dear Members, families, volunteers and staff, What a busy week at The Pony Club. We were pleased to announce the winners Mary King selected for our Easter bonnet competition. If you haven't already seen who's won, please visit our creative activities page and view the wonderful creations, as I mentioned last week, they are spectacular. We are now looking forward to watching the submissions come through for our Art Competition. We know we have many talented members out there and hope you enjoy our theme of Equestrian Hopes and Dreams. You have until June 30th to submit your work, so please visit https://artcomp.pcuk.org, for all the details on how to enter. Keep checking our Creative Activities page here. Riding We know the conversation on riding is a contentious issue, but we do feel it is important to highlight our guidance again. Our stance has not changed since the Government began restrictions and we remain aligned with the BEF and member bodies. We ask that you do not ride, unless it is necessary for the welfare of the horse or pony. We do understand that this is an individual decision and that you know what is best to keep our members and your families safe, as well as the best way to manage the welfare of your horse or pony. However, we should all respect the Government's message of 'stay home, protect the NHS, save lives', and carefully consider the risks associated with riding. As a community, we should not be putting any additional pressure on our emergency and NHS services. The Pony Club does not endorse any group gathering, online competition or activities involving jumping your horse or pony. Shared Resources We have been working hard with our branches and centres to ensure we offer as much support and guidance at this time. As part of this work we have created a collaborative space on Google Drive to post resources everyone can leverage. We have sections on Arts & Crafts, Badges, Quizzes, Pony Club Tests and much more. However, it has come to our attention that many of our volunteer network are part of the vital group of key workers supporting us in even more wonderful ways. Therefore, their time has been limited to make all our resources available to our members. In light of this, I would like to announce that we have created a member only area on our website, where you can get direct access to many of the resources shared on the Google Drive. We will continue to keep the area updated with new documents over the coming weeks, but we wanted to share the news as soon as possible. To access this new page please click here and use the password: pony1929. We hope this offers more support for members and we hope you enjoy completing the activities. We would love to hear your feedback on the area as we look to develop it in the future. To send your feedback please fill in our contact us form on the website. Online Safety As we invite our members to spend more time online joining our competitions, accessing resources, and connecting with their friends, we want to ensure everyone is staying safe. We have very robust safeguarding policies in place to protect our members taking part in Pony Club activities and now more than ever it is important to address keeping yourself safe online. I would encourage all parents to visit the NSPCC website where they share a raft of useful information and links to other organisations who can inform us all when it comes to staying ahead with the latest online risks to our young people. Looking to the future! It is still an uncertain landscape and the news can change daily, but at The Pony Club we are starting to look ahead. We are mapping out what our summer activities could look like under the current discussions around future restrictions. We want you to be assured we will do all we can to offer our members the best summer possible and we hope this will be spending time with our horses and ponies enjoying the sunshine. I will keep you up to date in the coming weeks when we can plan more concretely. Please continue to stay safe in these times and thank you for your continued support. Marcus Marcus Capel |
