By Zoe Lewis
My name is Zoe Lewis. I compete at USDF-recognized shows and am a member of the United States Pony Club (USPC) affiliate Texas Heat with my sister Ruby. In 2023, we were recognized for competing in both the Rio Grande Regional Pony Club Dressage Rally and USDF-recognized dressage shows. I earned the USPC/USDF Medallion Award, and Ruby earned the USPC/USDF Silver and Gold Awards. We are so grateful to be a part of both communities.
We competed as a Texas Heat Pony Club Team at the 2023 Regional Dressage Rally. This is a lot of responsibility for participants, because parents, coaches, and trainers are not allowed in the stabling area. We had to prepare ourselves, our horses, our tack and feed stalls, and be on time. During the rally, we had to undergo several inspections: jogging, turnouts, safety, and turnback inspections, along with being on time for our warm-up and classes. The Horse Management Team also inspects our tack stalls and feed rooms to ensure we have all the items required, from backup bridles and reins, to all the necessary items in our wash and grooming kits.
Our team won Reserve Champion with our combined dressage tests and horse management scores! I was also excited that my pony earned the highest average dressage test score at the rally!
My sister was a “C mentor” at the rally, so her job was to organize and lead the first-time young rally kids. She said it felt like handling wild ponies at times, but she had a great time! She helped the kids get ready for their first jog out with a borrowed pony, and kept them busy as she taught them everything that happened at a rally – from cleaning their tack and stalls, to running tests to the scorers for the competitors, and watching the older kids’ inspections. Thankfully, Pony Club focuses on teamwork, horsemanship, safety, responsibility, leadership, and time management.
Ruby and I also like competing at the USDF shows with large classes and many focused riders who love dressage as much as we do! Ruby competed in FEI Pony classes, and at Second and Third Levels. She earned her USDF Bronze Freestyle Bar in 2023 after earning her USDF Bronze Medal in 2022.
I competed at Training and First Levels this past year. We qualified for the Great American Insurance Group/USDF Region 9 Dressage Championships, where my pony and I won Reserve Champion in a large class at regionals! We love our USDF community, and our junior group feels like a team. We have fun outside the ring, supporting each other when getting ready and braiding, and we also volunteer together. Since we only see each other at shows, hanging out and catching up is always a highlight.
USDF focuses on being a good sport, understanding the training scale, and how the dressage test purpose and movements correspond to training progress, volunteering, and competition.
Ruby and I specialize in the Dressage USPC Certification track, so we also study the training scale, and how to incorporate it when discussing our warm-up and evaluating our ride and progress to examiners. USDF also teaches us responsibility and self-awareness because, in the dressage ring, it is on us alone to perform with our horse or pony.
There is a lot of overlap, and each organization has a different emphasis. Together, both USDF and USPC experiences make for a complete education, and help us do better and be better all around. We thank our pony club, USDF, trainers, farriers, and vets who helped us, and our family for supporting us! It takes team support to do it all. We are looking forward to 2024!
Way to go Zoe and Ruby !!!