Awards

A life with horses starts here

PCA Annual Awards
These are hotly contested and acknowledge our riders, coaches, officials and volunteers for achievements and contributions to the development of Pony Club. Categories are:
– Best achievement by a rider aged 12 years and under (age at 1st January)
– Best achievement by a rider aged 13 – 17 years
– Best achievement by a rider aged 18 – 25 years
– Best achievement by a rider aged over 25 years (NEW)
– Volunteer of the Year

– Miss Kay Irving Coach of the Year
– Young Coach of the Year (NEW)  aged 30 years and under.
– Gill Rolton Alumni Award
– Accredited Riding Centre of the Year
– Pony Club of the Year
Note: It is the quality of the nominations, not the quantity

Award Guidelines

You can watch the 2023 Awards announcement here. 

More about the 2023 winners

You can watch the 2022 Awards announcement here.

Pony Club is not just about riding. It’s about riding well into the future, bringing everyone along for the ride and caring for horses along the way. That’s why we created three national values awards. They are not competitive but are designed to recognise all our members who do extraordinary work and make an impact in the areas of sustainability, inclusion and horse welfare. The Values Awards are open all year.

PCA Community Captain Award

Community Captains consider the perspectives, skill level and ambitions of others and have the ability to make them feel safe, valued and included. Community Captains identify and create ways to bring people together for the greater good of Pony Club. They are ambassadors for the community spirit that unites the international Pony Club movement. The PCA Community Captain recognition award is awarded to a PCA member who represents the aforementioned attributes of a Community Captain, as demonstrated in a specific project, activity or innovation. The award is to recognise extraordinary efforts above and beyond what would ordinarily be expected of a Pony Club Australia member.
Examples include: Developing a support group for riders with particular needs/desires/ambitions, creating alternative or virtual spaces to connect people who are geographically distant, translating Pony Club resources and messages into alternative languages or forms of communication, removing a physical or social barrier to participation in Pony Club, accommodating cultural and linguistic diversity in Pony Club, creating new exchange programs, introducing Pony Club to the broader community through school visits or articles in media. Congratulations to Jenny Maynard and Jane Wilson on being awarded the Community Captain award in March 2022. 

PCA Welfare Warrior Award

The Welfare Warrior recognition award is awarded to a PCA member who has put the horse’s health and wellbeing needs before their own on a notable occasion, or delivered a project that addresses the mental and physical aspects of horse welfare and wellbeing across one or more of the following areas: nutrition, health, environment, behaviour and human interaction. The award has been introduced to recognise extraordinary efforts above and beyond what would ordinarily be expected of a Pony Club Australia member.
Examples include: The innovative dissemination of welfare-related information and education, creating a new resource, designing or installing improved facilities, removing physical and social barriers to improved horse welfare (or addressing enablers), arranging for a workshop or forum with an expert speaker, conducting research to determine current knowledge, writing a grant to purchase Large Animal Rescue equipment for the club, creating a poster/webpage/mobile app, writing policy or guidelines, etc. The activity should benefit more than one horse, have direct impact on pony club horses and have direct or indirect impact on other horses.

PCA Sustainability Champion Award (Social or Environmental)

Pony Club Australia is the longest running equestrian organisation in Australia. Sustainability Champions undertake projects which ensure the long-term environmental and/or social sustainability of Pony Club. The Sustainability Champion award recognises a Pony Club Australia member who has advanced the sustainability of Pony Club in particular and equestrian activities more generally. The recipient’s impact and achievements will be demonstrated in a specific project, activity or innovation in the areas of environmental or social sustainability.
The PCA Sustainability Champion award has been introduced to recognise extraordinary efforts above and beyond what would ordinarily be expected of a Pony Club Australia member.
Examples of environmental sustainability activities and projects include: Protecting water courses on Pony Club grounds and courses, implementing waste recycling strategies or policies which reduce the amount and type of waste produced through horse-related activities, partnering with community gardens to compost manure, hosting a horse property permaculture workshop or farm walk, writing a sustainability plan, writing a bushfire action plan, writing a natural disaster plan, introducing a new practice to reducing energy consumption at the club grounds, installing waste collection information and resources on popular shared-use trails, developing capacity for faecal egg counting and other practices which reduce the chemical burden on soils, educating trail riders about sustainable use of trails.
Examples of social sustainability activities and projects include: Projects which develop positive relationships and strengthen ties with non-equestrians in the local community, taking horses to retirement homes or hospices where appropriate, raising awareness of the benefits of having horses in the local community, creating events which support local businesses and not-for-profits.

Emma Le Grand from Learmonth Pony Club, Victoria.

Fiona Mamet from Hendra Pony Club, Queensland.

YAC Photo Competition 2020

In 2020, The Pony Club Australia Youth Advisory Council held a photo competition throughout August. The competition included five exciting categories: ?Best Concentration face – #PCAConcentrationFace, ?Fancy Dress – #PCAFancyDress, Glow Up – #PCAGlowUp, Portrait/HeadShot – #PCAHeadshot, and Action Shot – #PCAActionShot.

The WINNERS AND FINALISTS were selected from almost 1,000 entries. Special thanks to our judges (Heath Ryan, Cristine Bates, Click ‘n’ Capture Photography, Shane Rose and Bec Hennessy, owner of Bush Pony Media ) and sponsors (Ranvet, Horseland, Heiniger Equine, Bush Pony Media and EQ Saddlery).

Finalists for the PCA Annual Awards 2020

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