About Wakatipu Pony Club
Corner Hunter Rd and Speargrass Flat Road
The Wakatipu Pony Club was formed in 1951, and is a Branch of the Central Otago Pony Club, which is part of the Otago Southland Area. We are affiliated to the New Zealand Pony Club Association through the Otago Southland Area.
Central Otago Pony Club has 5 branches, Hawea-Wanaka, Cromwell, Clyde, Wakatipu, and Maniototo. The COPC is run by a committee made up of delegates from each branch.
We have around 20 Rallies a season with our season being September to May and then the ponies rest! Rallies are generally at the Pony Club Grounds but we also have adventures rallies to places such as Tuckers Beach. We have 5 members from Glenorchy and we are hoping to their new Riding Club Grounds soon.
Our club members compete in all disciplines including games.
In 2006/7 the club successfully raised over $120k for a new country course to be built with 6 different courses of varying difficulty from Introductory to One Star.
We also raised money for a new set of show jumps and trailer. This fundraising, plus an estimated $50k of voluntary labor from club members, meant we were able hold to our first event in January 2007.
The event was a fantastic success with International riders joining us as part of new initiative for eventing called a teams competition which enables pony club riders to ride in a team with their heroes.
We invited riding heroes such as Tinks Pottinger (bronze medallist - Seoul Olympics) , Mathew Grayling (Adelaide CCI*** and Trans Tasman wins) John Twomey (NZ Development Squad) and Shane Rose from Australia to compete as well as doing some coaching on the course itself.
Both Tinks Pottinger and Shane Rose (named in the Australian Olympic team for Beijing) joined us for the 2008 event as well. The competition moved to new level when Mark Todd decided to ride on Clarke Johnson’s horse 45 South. This was to herald the start of his Olympic campaign.
Our event was recently recognized by New Zealand Equestrian Federation as being the “Best Event in the South Island” for 2008.
More information on Wakatipu Pony Club membership and membership form.
