Educational Badge Program


Overview of Badges
This badge program gives us the opportunity to accomplish several objectives of Pony Club and to offer members ways to learn and have fun with their horses in a safe, enjoyable environment. It can give direction to an education program; it can introduce a wider variety of horse-related topics than involved in preparing for testing; and it can be a useful tool in encouraging intermediate members to remain in Pony Club. Young people join Pony Club with excitement and high expectations. A fun and educational badge system is an excellent way to encourage this enthusiasm, reward their efforts, expand their knowledge, and encourage initiative.

Objectives
Badges can:
  • Provide branches with assistance in designing their annual education program
  • Offer members a broad spectrum of horse-related activities
  • Encourage creativity and learning
  • Encourage both team work and individual research
  • Provide goals and rewards for members, especially those who are not testing every year
  • Provide recognition for members who compete at the regional level
  • Provide recognition for members who volunteer in Pony Club and the community

The Badges
Currently the Canadian Pony Club offers:
  • 18 Junior Badges intended mainly for untested, D levels and younger members:
  • six Horsemanship Badges, related to horse and stable management knowledge;
  • six Arts and Recreation Badges, including riding and creative activities;
  • six Regional Recognition Badges to be awarded for participation at Regional D level competitions.
  • 18 Senior Badges, aimed at C level and above or older, late-joining members, are intended to increase senior members awareness of the larger horse world:
  • six Horsemanship Badges, related to horse and stable management knowledge;
  • six Arts and Recreation Badges, including riding and creative activities;
  • six Regional Recognition Badges to be awarded for participation at Regional C level competitions.
  • 12 Specialty Badges cover teaching, mentoring and work related topics for more advanced members as well as badges for participation in Zone, National, and International competitions. The program is open-ended, giving branches the opportunity to choose the badges best suited to their education program and volunteer resources, or to suggest new badge topics to National for later inclusion in the handbook.

Administration
The overall badge system will be administered by the branch Education Chair or committee. Members can participate with the branch executive in choosing which or how many badges they wish to include in an education program. The branch can teach core badges to all members at that level if they wish. Some of these may require attendance at branch-run clinics for completion. In addition, branches can encourage members to undertake some of the individual or team research or art-related badges as independent studies. These may depend on the volunteers and resources available to the branch.

Complete details about the badge program are available for downloading as a PDF document (requires Adobe Reader) from our downloads page.

Pictures of all the badges and information on requirements for each one are available here.

Branches may order badges using the special Badge Order Form which is available as either a Word document or a PDF document.