pony club Memories

Stories from Alumni

A Memory From Anna (Kolding) Gaston.  Alumni Year ~ 1960s Submitted: January 30, 2006.

Some snippets of memories..... The snow falling off the roof and sending horses and riders flying in the indoor arena! Riding bareback on the coldest of days, thanking our lucky stars when we had a pony like Zinnia or Firefly, who had the smoothest of trots, and the roundest of backs, and dreading having Forest Glen or King Cole whose trot took every effort to sit to.

Mr. Doherty, who I think was the park manager, or maybe the stable manager after hours. I don't know. But he was such a nice man. Rides in the park, if you were lucky to have the last ride on a Saturday afternoon. I think we were supposed to be cooling the horses down??? ummmm ok ;-) The friends....Nancy Gallop (how appropriate, I always thought), Ginny Daley (she moved to Ontario, and her dad, Colonel Daley, started up the African Safari, west of Toronto...Ginny bred and trained "Canadians"), Susan Jarvis, Gaye Scott (she lives in Mississauga now and still rides), Susan Ogilvie, Debbie Butler, and so many others. Speaking of Debbie Butler...she sure could stick to a bucking horse! We had this one pony, Bubbles was her name. Pure black and just absolutely full of the devil. If you can picture a cartoon pony with steam coming out of her nostrils, that would be Bubbles. Oh...and the Bubbles part?? We all thought it was because she broke wind so much...particularly when she was in the middle of bucking someone off. I remember one afternoon, Debbie was riding Bubbles. I think it was the day we were being tested. Everyone was pretty much done for the day, but Debbie. What a show. Something spooked Bubbles and she ran and bucked and twisted like a bronco and Debbie rode her like a cowboy! The show lasted for at least 5 minutes...maybe more! What a grin on Debbie's face when she finally dismounted...of her own accord!

In 1960 the Fredericton Branch moved to fine new quarters in O'Dell Park. Club facilities included the main building that contained a pleasant club room with a large stone fireplace, tack rooms and stabling for 16 horses or ponies. In the rear was a covered ring and two outdoor riding rings for all Club activities. Much credit for this splendid setup was due to Dr. Rober Ogilvie, a local dentist, who had four Pony Club daughters and felt a special responsibility to see that the Club was properly housed during his term as President. Many individuals and companies contributed financial support, materials, tack and horses to the project. A full-time instructor was hired at that time.

The Fredericton Horse Show! Wow...it was what we waited for each year. Whether we were showing or just helping, what an awesome weekend. I had Count Castleton in two classes one year. Miss Christmas had asked me to ride him for several months leading up to the show. He was a new horse....huge...a lot of Clyde in him but not quite as long-legged. He was delightful in the arena. A tendency to be lazy, but a nice personality apart from that. Except when we went into the park. He would trot and extend trot very nicely. But the minute he broke into a canter, he grabbed that huge snaffle, put his head down, and I was gone! BAM. I sprained just about everything that could be sprained I think. And had to get rescued more than once as he was too big to climb up onto when you've just had the wind knocked out of you. And that was on those occasions when he stuck around. So....it's show time...and I was told to go warm him up in the infield at the racetrack. And to give him a nice fast canter to get the spookies out of him. I was not one to disobey, but the thought of cantering him outside and falling off and losing the horse in unfamiliar territory was NOT going to happen! No cantering for that big boy. Well we went into the class, and he was an angel. The hack and pleasure classes in those days had like 40 horses in them, so I was delighted when we got pulled into the top 10. I think I was the only Pony Clubber in that group so it was a big deal for sure. We lined up, and the judges went down the line, asking us each to back up. It was hot in there, and they took their sweet time getting to me, last in the line up. Finally...the big moment...I squeezed with my legs, gently coaxed back with my hands. Nothing. I tried again...and his slack neck moved with each little tug of my fingers. He was sound asleep on his feet!!! I nearly cried when the judges moved on and awarded the prizes to those who had been smart enough to keep their horses awake! And that was the end of my show career, I'm afraid!

Just going through these pictures brings back a lot of memories.

Dudley - a tall chestnut, huge good nature, and a lovely jumper Copper Penny - maybe half Arab? A dainty soul and a lovely pleasure ride. Pepper - full of vim and vigour, unlike her lazier and chubbier half-sister... Firefly Zinnia - my personal darling of a mare, just beautiful gaited, smooth, willing, and looked gorgeous in the show ring Clipper - her son - much rougher gate, but nonetheless good-natured Alad - he was the littlest of them all, and lived in the pony barn out back, with Clipper Forest Glen - tall, lean, and lanky, and could jump like the wind. Not pretty to look at but he had his own personality El Kahira - She had carrot ears. And a constantly twitchy nose. You can see them both in the photo. Not a strong horse, and people either loved her or didnt. She was Susan Rankine's special horse for sure.

It has been a pleasure to go through all these!

Anna (Kolding) Gaston

A Memory From Mollie Ferris.  Alumni Year ~ 1980/90s Submitted: July 28, 2005.

Greetings from Alberta. 
The news of the re-opening of the GREAT Fredericton Pony Club reached me earlier this week. I wish to extend my congratulations to Veronica (Misener) Archer and Heather Touchie-Blakely (and I'm sure many others) who I'm certain have spent lots of time, energy and effort to revive the pony club. What follows are some of my memories from the old Fredericton Pony Club in O'Dell Park.

Growing up, the Fredericton Pony Club was my adopted home away from home. My parents were supportive of my horse habit but had no real interest in owning a horse. The Pony Club offered the perfect alternative where us city folks could ride horses twice weekly (and daily in the summer in the blue and red rides) without the added expense and individual responsibility of owning the horses. We had the best collection of school horses and many great individuals to guide us in our early exposure to horses. The club was a big part of our family with two of my sisters and my father all riding at various times. My heart broke when they closed the doors to the club. I haven't been able to go back to O'Dell Park since then.

I have so many great memories of those wonderful horses and ponies who taught me how to ride. There was Rags, my favorite, a scallywag who would purposefully catch his leg over the straight stall rope so that an unsuspecting new rider would come to fix his rope and unknowingly set him free as he ran from the stall out for a few bites of fresh green grass. There were the Mountain Berry brothers, Logan and Winter (and finally Snow) who spent most of their days at O'dell, teaching dozens of children how to ride. There is a picture of them in the beautiful fall trees at the NB Visitors Information Center. There was Dilly Dally - a guaranteed red ribbon if you picked her out of the hat for the show. I was fortunate enough to ride her in a clinic given by Captain Canada, Ian Millar. There were Pride and Okkey (I can' t believe it but I'm not sure of the spelling on this one) - great jumpers to build confidence in the young rider. Hud (a leopard app with near perfect conformation)- if you could sit trot on that pony, you had finally mastered your seat. There was George, Crystal, Lady, Ena, and Louie for the older riders who needed more of a challenge. Great ponies: Moxie (too slow for me), Honey and Jay (Sarah's favorites), Twinkle (who taught us that horses do bite), Duke and Brandon (the perfect ponies). We were even exposed to foaling when little Sweet Pea turned out to be pregnant (when on purchase, we were assured that there was no possible way she could have been bred... immaculate conception?). There were Dundee and Misty, who came from dubious beginnings, but taught us all a thing or two. There was one-eyed Zoli who loved to jump so much he would jump a course if turned out in the jumping ring. There were Jet, AppleJack and Queenie who I only knew briefly in those early days. There was Chance who taught us about heaves. There was Zack, a real trooper who took my dad for a few rides. And of course, there was Houdini and Flicka, later favorites of mine who partook in all our crazy antics in the park... just to name a few.

The park was (and still is) incredible and Monty (the park caretaker) was great. I have too many wonderful memories to describe. So many hacks in the park to cool out our horses after a good workout. The conditioning in the park with breezing in the baseball fields. The wildflowers, the wild berries and a few lazy hacks. Adventures in bush-wacking - Logan's sure-footedness was ideal for this. Fallen trees that got dragged back onto the trail and ditches to practice natural obstacles. I truly believe the horses had as much fun as we did.

Our instructors taught us the true meaning of horsemanship, especially, Dr. Hagerman. She ran a tight ship where the horses came first. If you showed up late for a lesson or tried to ride a dirty horse in dirty tack - back to the barn for you. You missed your lesson and got to groom and clean tack for the evening. The barn floor had to be "clean enough to lick spaghetti off of". The FPC was a dominant force in the stable management department to be reckoned with at all rallies during Dr. Hagerman's reign. She is a vat of knowledge and experience. She was a great influence and I'm sure she's the reason that I am a veterinarian today. The other instructors were only there briefly but still made their mark - Laura May with her musical rides, and Patty and Patty with an all about fun focus.

The clinics were fabulous, sporting famous players including Captain Mark Phillips and Ian Millar. There were lots of them along the way, but the ones I remember most were with Sue Fraser. She is high level dressage coach whose talent brought out the real rider in each one of us. We went home from these clinics, enthusiastic about our new found knowledge and exhausted from all the hard work. The variety of disciplines that we were exposed to was fantastic. We showed in dressage, the hunters, the jumpers, equitation, eventing and lets not forget the gymkhanas. The rallies were good but tougher for us with our school horses up against some pretty fancy privately owned horses - but it was all about the fun we had. We had unmounted events - the quizzes were just starting up in my last days of pony club.

The pony club parents deserve a hearty thank you for all of their volunteer hours, dedication and hard work to keep the place running smoothly for so many years. It was a sad day for everyone when the club closed its doors. And finally, I have to recall the friends that I made along the way, really true friends.

From older riders (Heather!), who helped teach us to muck stalls, groom, tack up and who occasionally taught us our lessons, to the younger riders we helped along the same path. And of course, all of my fellow riders in pink through to red who became no less than steadfast buddies (Veronica). Pony Club is nothing without the people involved.

From that day on February 3, 1983 when I joined the Fredericton Pony Club to today, the people, the horses and even the place have greatly influenced my life. This year, I met up with an old pony club buddy, Kathryn Thompson. We have just started riding together again after a brief hiatus for school and other things. I ride a little horse named Maxwell and she rides a bigger horse named Hippy - two school horses who gently remind us of old lessons learned and bring us back to those "good old days".

I only hope and pray that the new Fredericton Pony Club is able to offer its new charges the same opportunities that came my way. I hope they realize how lucky they are to have those horses and those places and especially those people to help them along the way. My best wishes to everyone involved in the new Fredericton Pony Club. Good luck and have fun!!

Sincerely,
Mollie Ferris, DVM