On April 1 Kirsten Radcliffe begins a journey of a lifetime – and that’s no fooling.
She will head to Vancouver that day for a week of training and then it is off to Australia where she will ride with Team Canada in the International Mounted Games Exchange as a member of the Canadian Pony Club.
Radcliffe, 15, comes from a family that has been involved with horses for many years. Her mom, Sandra, was a member of a Pony Club when she was a girl and she encouraged her children, too.
Radcliffe’s father, Tom, is the only one of the family not involved in a major way with horses and competition, but he knows a great deal about the events and is even looking for a farm to replace the family home on 1.5 acres of land with a barn that is located just west of Inverhaugh. He needs a larger place for horses, he said.
Sandra Radcliffe, was a chaperone a couple of years ago for the same international event and is president of the Grand River Pony Club.
As for Australia, “I’ve done the trip,” she said, noting she went with two neighbours who also qualified for the Canadian team and went down under. She has been involved with pony clubs “since I was 10 – off and on.”
Sandra is now the district commissioner of the Grand River Pony Club, and she noted many people are unaware just what the club is. People can be affiliated with it until age 25, but the national team qualifiers compete only the year they turn 15.
“It’s world wide,” she said of pony clubs. “In Britain, there’s a waiting list.”
She said while the local club might have 25 to 40 members, in Britain there are up to 200. And, she said, that is one reason why Britain and Australia are usually the teams to beat in the international competition, but Canadians are in there trying, and, “We have a good time.”
Her mother is not the only family member involved. Kirsten’s older brother, T.J., and her sister were into horses, too. Caitlin, now 23, was in the Pony Club and rode for Team Canada as a girl, competing in Germany. Her lack of fear around horses led to a job at the Grand River Raceway, where she met and married driver Garnett Rooney. He drives for Henry Equestrian.
Kirsten’s younger brother Cameron is also a competitor and rider in the Pony Club.
Family involvement is encouraged in the Grand River Pony Club, where all riders support their fellow members, regardless of skill or level.
When Kirsten reaches Vancouver, she will join Megan Dick, Kearstyn Sabourin, Tayler Vick and Emma Wiebe on Team Canada. The other members of Team Canada this year are from the west coast. Some years, there are more riders from other places. Kirsten said she got to know some of them at a previous national competition that focused on individual results.
“We got to hang out together,” she said, adding that team organizers “took us to Canada’s Wonderland for a day. That was really fun.”
Kirsten has been riding since she was 6 years old; it is simply something that her family does. She has also been competing in riding events since those early days. “Our whole family,” she said. “We just grew up doing it.”
She remembered, “I got my first pony when I was 6 years old.” She kept that Shetland for about three years and then moved to a larger Welsh pony that she rode for two years. She got another Welsh breed pony for two years, and then, a horse. “I got Matrix two years ago.”
She rode that gelding last year in the district and regional competitions in Fergus and then Puslinch Township to qualify as an Ontario representative for the national championships. To make the national team, she had to beat six other riders.
That team will compete in Australia from April 7 to 22.
The Grand River Pony Club has was one of the original Western Ontario Region branches and it was started in 1971. The club took a three year break from 1999 to 2001 and then reactivated and has been revitalized.
The Australian world competition includes representatives from Pony Clubs in Great Britain, the United States, Canada and the host country taking part in the international Prince Philip Games.
It is a team competition played by Pony Clubs around the world. The original Prince Philip Cup was donated to the British Pony Club by His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinborough. Canada has its own Prince Philip Cup, named by his permission. It is awarded annually to the best team in Canada.
The games are played by teams of five riders and five ponies, but only four participate in each game. That gives team leaders a chance to choose the best four performers in any of the various competitions, and also gives ponies, and riders, a chance to catch their breaths.
The games are variations on a relay race. Some require the riders and ponies to run a slalom course, in and out around a series of upright poles from one end of the field to the other, where they hand-off a prop to the next rider on the team.
Some require riders to vault off and onto their ponies. Others make riders drop objects such as socks and vegetables into buckets. There are others that require the rider to pick up objects with another object. Riders develop skills in the areas of timing; sense of space, speed and direction; co-ordination; agility; and horsemanship.
The international competitions are held in different countries each year.
The Prince Philip Games are one of the few riding competitions in which the members must work as a team, perfecting hand-offs, rotating through the races, while encouraging and supporting each other.
Kirsten is not a one-dimensional teen when it comes to Sports, either. She plays ring–ette and, at Centre Wellington District High School in Fergus, she plays field hockey. When not involved in those Sports, she swims and works out in a gym, and said all those activities are definitely a help in her riding.
“You’re not on the horse the full time,” she said. “It takes a lot of strength – upper body strength. I do the workouts and go to the gym.”
This year the games will be held in Canberra and Sydney.
One difficulty is the diversity of the games. While some events are standard at such competitions, there is a wide variety of games from which to choose in any given competition, and so riders have to focus on all-round skills.
The tetrathalon, for example, combines riding with other athletic activities. Based on the Olympic modern pentathlon, it has been used by military colleges of many countries to develop the character of their young officers.
In 1969, it was started in the Pony Club and became a national program in Canada in 1975. It involves cross country and stadium riding, cross country running, swimming, and air pistol shooting.
There are also elements of other riding, such as dressage.
“My favourites are jumping and mounted games,” Kirsten said.
The Mounted Games were the inspiration of H.R.H. Prince Philip, and are a way for youths to become involved with riding.
When Col. Sir Mike Ansell was director of the Horse of the Year Show, Prince Philip asked if he could devise a competition for children who could not afford an expensive, well-bred pony, and in 1957 saw the first Mounted Games Championship for the Prince Philip Cup. It was an immediate success.
Besides team competitions, there are also pairs competitions and individual competitions. Organizers noted that if there is a mistake in that event, it is clearly the fault of the rider because “the pony is only following orders.”
Whichever format is chosen, the same general rules apply. That means no whips, no spurs – and no bad or un-sporting behaviour. Each format of competition has its own selection of about 20 different games, with some being common to all formats.
For Kirsten Radcliffe, horses and riding have been a big part of her life, but she does not let it take over to the exclusion of all else.
She has a lot of friends from the Grand River Pony Club, but she noted, “Quite a lot of my friends don’t even ride.”
And is she looking for a career in the equine industry?
Not exactly.
“I want to be a chemical engineer,” she said.
