Sierra Nevada Hounds at the 2024 US Pony Club Convention in Reno, Nevada
Reno, Nevada is mostly known for its silver mining history and casinos, but Reno is also a horse-loving town. The rodeo is king here, as the Reno Rodeo is one of the largest in the country. Mustangs can be found easily within the city limits. And because Nevada is 85% federally owned, meaning the vast majority of the state is public and open land, the trail riding here is heaven.
Pony clubbers from all over the country came to the swanky Peppermill Resort Spa Casino for four days of learning. Several rooms served as lecture halls and hands-on classrooms. There was a room devoted solely to the Anatomy Lab, with real physical examples of bones, hooves, legs, heads, and other body parts were preserved for display. The schedule of the lectures was impressive, consisting of horse management, leadership training, cross-country course designing, Mongolian horsemanship, and of course foxhunting. Really, the full list of all the education opportunities throughout the long weekend was too much to print here.
The local foxhunt for Reno is the new Sierra Nevada Hounds, in the middle of their second season. The foxhunters took a booth in the vendor fair of the convention. Full disclosure, I am the Honorary Secretary for the Sierra Nevada Hounds. We set up a beautiful canvas tent inside the large ballroom and had several informative posters on display. The members took three hour shifts to cover every hour of the convention, and we all arrived dressed in formal attire ready to talk up our beloved sport of riding to hounds.
In the room that was designated for the youngest pony clubbers, the Pony Paddock, I was asked to give a talk to the young Juniors about foxhunting. I arrived and much silliness followed. I taught the kids how to call the rebel yell and the view halloa, just as an excuse to scream as loud as possible while indoors. I did forbid the cracking of the hunt whip I had brought, as I didn’t relish the possibility of getting the police called when the casino management thought that the whip was a gunshot (The number one rule for Miss Gretchen is “Do not get Miss Gretchen arrested”). The kids had made pool noodle ponies, complete with bridles and reins, so we practiced a mock hunt looking for clues regarding foxhunting terms. It was complete pandemonium, with pool noodle ponies attached to very hyper juniors flying throughout the casino’s convention area. Thank god those weren’t real ponies. And Sierra Nevada Hounds may have had a hand in the overly excited children, as two of our members who are professional chefs baked cookies for the clubbers. Oops.
Other vendors in the area were Stubben, Tevis Cup (which is held only about an hour or so from Reno, just over the Sierra’s in Northern California), Finish Line products, and several equestrian universities. Also present was a new organization for a new English competition for Mustangs called the Mustang Classic with a $125,000 purse (Mustang Classic (mustangclassic2024.com). The display came with a virtual reality of Mustangs just outside of Salt Lake City, and the video was amazing. The Mustangs came right up to the camera, and several times I found myself reaching out or trying to step off the ledge to reach them.
Mustangs turned out to be quite the mascot for the convention, as the USPC chose “Wild Horses Couldn’t Keep Me Away” as the slogan for this year’s convention. And on the last day, Sunday, we foxhunters did what we do best – talked three pony clubbers (including a thrilled mom) into hunting with us before they flew home. Despite not having any riding clothes, or horses, or any previous experience riding through the sage, they came and hunted with us anyway.
One of the ladies rode a Mustang named Lincoln, owned by Paulette Schneider, MFH and Lisa Smith. Lincoln, 15 years old, was gathered on the range near Austin, Nevada. He was purchased at the nearby prison located in Carson City.
The Northern Nevada Correctional Center in Carson City has a facility equipped to hold over 2,000 Mustangs and has a training program that utilizes inmates to train the wild horses and burros. There is a public auction on site several times a year to sell the Mustangs that were broke by the inmates (see the Northern Nevada Correctional Center Horse Facility | Bureau of Land Management (blm.gov) for more information). When I was last there for one auction, I saw several over 16 hand Mustangs that would have made fantastic foxhunting prospects, as the inmates had them whip-broke already and doing some sophisticated riding.
Mustangs make steady foxhunting mounts, especially in the sagebrush that they call home. A more surefooted mount one will be hard-pressed to find in the hunt field. And a bonus – most can go barefoot.
Olivia Moore, age 15, hunted Lincoln, and her mother, Emma, rode another borrowed hunt horse named Big Cat. The hunting opportunity was thrown together the day before as they realized that their flight home to Santa Barabara didn’t leave until late Sunday night. Olivia and Lincoln had a blast hunting in the sage, wearing borrowed hunting clothes from the hunt members, as neither mother nor daughter flew to Reno with a riding kit. The mom, Emma, rode in her jeans and fancy cowboy boots with a western saddle and never stopped smiling all day. Olivia is a member of the Santa Barbara Polo Pony Club and has hunted with the Santa Ynez Valley Hounds based north of Santa Barbara.
Natalie Huso also hunted with us on Sunday. She is an adult member of the Frederick Pony Club in Maryland. She foxhunts back home, does a bit of showjumping and rides in the occasional amateur flat race.
At the Sierra Nevada Hounds booth, we gave out information on the opportunities and awards that Pony Clubbers have to learn about the sport of foxhunting. The USPC has the Foxhunting Recognition Certificate that awards the Pony Clubber who finishes the unmounted and/or mounted sections of the program (Foxhunting – The United States Pony Clubs, Inc.).
The Masters of Foxhounds Association of North America (“MFHA”) has several opportunities for Juniors and Pony Clubbers alike. The MFHA has the Fairly Hunted Award Foxhunting Certificate for those Juniors who have hunted at least five times in one season (Fairly Hunted Award – MFHA).
The Live Oak Hounds Foxhunting Challenge is provided with the support of the Live Oak Hounds based in Florida to encourage Pony Clubbers who don’t usually foxhunt to try the sport. Cash awards go to the top Pony Clubs with the highest participation in foxhunting, based on percentage of membership, each year (see Results from the Live Oak Hounds Foxhunting Challenge – Pony Club Blog for the 2023 results).
The Brookfield Conservation Award is for a Pony Club whose members have promoted land conservation (Opportunities, Grants, & Awards – The United States Pony Clubs, Inc.).
And finally, the International Foxhunting Exchange Team is held on an invitational basis for Pony Clubs around the world. The last exchange was held in 2022 with England and Ireland (International Exchanges – The United States Pony Clubs, Inc.).