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April 17, 2008 (Lexington, KY) – The United States Pony Clubs, Inc. (USPC) announced today the establishment of the Eleanor Brennan Memorial Fund for the Instructors’ Certification Program offered through the United States Eventing Association. The Eleanor Brennan Memorial Fund will provide funding for Instructor Certification Program workshops hosted by USPC, as well as scholarships for Pony Club instructors and members who attend ICP workshops at other venues.

Eleanor was a B-rated member of the Mountain Skyline Pony Club, a recipient of the USPC Cavalry Award, and an advanced level eventing competitor. To honor Eleanor and her contribution to, and love of Pony Club, her family and friends have established a memorial fund that will provide monies for Pony Club to host and participate in Instructor Certification Program workshops.

“Pony Club was such a big part of Eleanor’s life. She was thrilled to display her Mountain Skyline Pony Club banner in front of Badminton House, after being the only current U.S. Pony Club member to complete that event on her horse Bailey Zwei, whom she’d bought as an inexperienced prospect and ridden throughout her Pony Club career. Eleanor also participated in an Instructors’ Certification Program Workshop during the 2007 USPC Festival,” said Eleanor’s Mother, Christine Brennan. “This was her first priority when she returned to the U.S. last summer after three years in England studying, training and competing. She was so excited about taking what she had learned in that program, adding to it her experience and background in Pony Club and putting it into practice with her students.”

The USEA Instructors’ Certification Program is a professional education and certification program for instructors of event riding. The program’s overreaching goal is to develop and confirm in event instructors their ability to impart to event riders of all ages knowledge of horses and horse care, competent and safe riding and competing skills, and good judgment. The five ICP Levels of instructor certification correspond to the levels of national eventing competition from Novice through Advanced, as well as the corresponding CIC and CCI competition levels. Candidate instructors enter the program at the ICP Level appropriate to their own riding and teaching experience. All program workshops, regardless of their ICP Level, seek to develop further the candidate instructor’s eye, knowledge base, communication skills, and ability to select exercises appropriate for the development of the horse and rider. At the highest ICP Level, certification confirms ability to teach safely and effectively at the highest competitive level of the sport.

“Pony Club is committed to providing quality instruction, and a solid horsemanship background for all of our members,” said Art Kramer, USPC President. “I had the privilege of meeting and watching Eleanor as she took part in a Pony Club-hosted ICP workshop. Eleanor was an extraordinary and bright young woman, an exemplary Pony Club member, as well as a talented ICP candidate instructor. We look forward to working with USEA and the Instructors’ Certification Program to bring more ICP instructors to our program. It is a logical and natural progression. USPC is very honored by this gesture. We thank the Brennan family for this wonderful opportunity.”

Pony Club is scheduled to host two USEA Instructors’ Certification Program workshops July 22^nd – 24^th prior to the USPC National Championships at the Virginia Horse Center in Lexington, VA. To sign up for either of these workshops, contact Lynn Miles at USPC instruction@ponyclub.org. For more information about the Instructor Certification Program, contact Nancy Knight at nancy@useventing.com or Sue Hershey at swhershey@cs.com.

USPC intends to work to increase the size of the already significant fund to insure that it can provide support for Instructor Certification Programs well into the future and invites all USPC and USEA members, as well as all those interested in furthering eventing safety, to contribute to the fund. Donations to the Eleanor Brennan Memorial Fund for Instructor Certification may be made to the United States Pony Clubs, Inc. 4041 Iron Works Parkway, Lexington, KY 40511. All donations to the Fund are tax-deductible. More information is also available at www.eleanorbrennan eventing.com

The United States Pony Clubs, Inc., was founded in 1954 as a non-profit national youth organization to teach riding and horsemanship through a formal educational program. Many of the nation’s top equestrians, including most of our Olympic Equestrian team members, have Pony Club roots. Members range in age from as young as 4 through age 25. Activities are English-riding based, and members ride both horses and ponies, depending on the size of the rider and the discipline in which s/he is competing.

There are approximately 12,000 members of USPC in over 600 clubs and centers throughout the country. Along with an emphasis on helping members learn to ride and care for horses, Pony Club promotes teamwork, a sense of responsibility, safety, good moral judgment and self-confidence.

For more information about the United States Pony Clubs, visit the USPC web site at www.pony club.org or contact the office at 859-254-7669.

Presentation photos and additional information regarding Eleanor Brennan available upon request by contacting Shelley@ponyclub.org.

Eleanor came to riding later than most – at the age of 12, handicapped by pre-occupied, inexperienced non-horsey parents, though inspired by her Grandfather, a horseman and former competitor in the Militaire, forerunner of modern Eventing. Pony Club was a safe haven to find the knowledge and mentors she needed to pursue the passion she had harbored, but not been able to act upon for so many years. Eleanor joined the Mountain Skyline Pony Club in the Old Dominion Region in Virginia and was an active member, earning her B rating. Her horse, Bailey Zwei, which was purchased as an aging (9 yr old) greenie for Pony Club activities, took Eleanor all the way to the top event in the world, Badminton in England. Throughout the Badminton Event, she proudly displayed her local Pony Club banner, as she competed with the top riders in the world.

Eleanor was not only the youngest rider ever to complete the Badminton Event and perhaps any 4 star event (top level) but the only current U.S. Pony Club member ever to do so. Other achievements included winning US Eventing Mid-Atlantic Advanced championship in her first year at the Advanced level. On the way up the ladder, she had earned every honor in Pony Club from 1st prize at her first Regional Quiz Rally (horse knowledge) for her level, up to the coveted Cavalry Award, which is given to the top placing Pony Club members in any CCI Event.

As Eleanor moved out of Pony Club and on to England, she never forgot her roots and would always give clinics on her visits back to the US. Upon her return, she had become a regular and loved PC instructor and examiner.

This is a program which Eleanor heartily approved of and took part in at the USPC Festival in July 2007. She both valued and enjoyed it, commenting afterwards “If only we could get more instructors into this program it would improve the base of so many young riders.”

In turn fellow instructors valued her input: “I met Eleanor this summer at an ICP clinic at Festival. She was TALENTED and Kind and a great rider and instructor. She was the most promising person in the group, (Level II and III) and really understood her horses.” - Quote from ICP Participant, 2007.