CJ

Cj Kolb is in charge of the Hospitality at the Championships West.

She makes sure all Horse management team,  organizers, Judges, and volunteers are fed and hydrated. She always has snacks and cookies and cold drinks available in the hospitality suites. She brings muffins, hard boiled eggs, yogurt and cheese for breakfast, sandwiches, salads and fruits for lunch. There is always ice cold drinks there. She must spend a lot of time at the grocery store.

Organizers

Since it is so close to Champs, here are some pictures of the organizers so you know what they look like.

Sneak peak on the banner

Championships start on Friday! It's hard to believe that it's so close.
Since my mom is in charge of decorating the banner you get a sneak peak. (I don't think it's very exciting though!)

Sally Phillips - Games Organizer

Sally Phillips is one of organizers for Games discipline.

 

Martha Klinger (DC of PVPC) and Sally Phillips are busy sharing out these tasks right now:

• making (with help from friends), borrowing, searching, finding the VERY long list of equipment needed for 21 games played on 5 lanes - we get something done everyday to chip away at the list 
• schedules, programs, team lists, prizes, stabling charts, name tags - all have to be organized and communicated 
• volunteers - many of them - have to be solicited, we have approx 30 people helping to put on games  including 10 lane judges, 2 line judges, starter, and 5 other pairs of eyes watching games to make sure the action is fairly and accurately scored. 
• equipment crew - our top notch equipment crew is undergoing training to allow them to switch out equipment at the speed of light between games to keep the show rolling 
• hospitality - we are gearing up to house and keep our judges, TDs, HM judges fed, watered and housed

Sally Phillips Eventing

Here is what she says about herself.

 

Why do you like pony club?
Because it offers many lesson for life, and teaches its members to be good equestrians (not just good riders), to work as a team, to overcome hurdles, to give back, and to have FUN!

What is your favorite thing to do in a pony club meeting? 

Hands down XC

What do you have special planned for your discipline?
It is first champs experience for most of our games players, and often the first mounted champs discipline due to the lower age/rating qualifying criteria - we want them to be safe (games can be hectic with 5 teams of 4/5 competing at once), feel successful, and that all their hard work practicing paid off. We want them to enjoy their champs experience and come back from more in future years including the other disciplines

What are your hobbies outside of horses?
Triathlon - races of all distances short and very long (ironman and longer)

Do you have pets?
Yes 2 huskies and 2 cats - all rescues

What is a funny story about you?
I was a member of the Vine pony club in England growing up - I recently happened to check them out on their web site and noticed a contemporary of mine from that era is now the DC, and living at the same farm as her parents - we used to have lots of pc rallies there. Generations change everything, and yet they change nothing :)

Sally's daughters Sammy and Maxy playing games.

Katrina Deane - The Ultimate Organizer

Here is one person that you should know. I heard Katrina was one of the people who worked on bringing the Champs to MidCal. 

Here is what she says about herself.(She's not very chatty though. So, if you know Katrina let everybody know about her in the comments.)

Why do you like pony club?
    I like to see families getting outdoors and enjoying horses together.

What do you not like about pony club?
    What is there not to like?

What is your favorite thing to do in a pony club meeting?
    Organize something!

What do you have special planned for the championships?
    Dinner for everyone on Saturday night, followed by the Opening Ceremony, and prizes for everyone..

What are your hobbies outside of horses?
    I like road trips, camping and hiking.

Do you have pets?
    I have a wonderful black lab named Logan, and a cat named Harley.

What is a funny story about you.
    Like Ronda I have also been hit by a bird (but the bird survived). I had just had my hair highlighted at the hairdressers, my husband said the bird must have thought that the back of my head looked like some small striped creature that it was trying to swoop down on and fly off with!  I also lose my sunglasses a lot, but sometimes I just lose one lens and carry on wearing them without noticing, much to the hilarity of my two daughters.

Get to know the MidCal RS

For my first spotlight we are going to meet Ronda the RS of MidCal. Drum roll please!

The parents in my club call her the fearless leader! I think that she is very funny and cool.

With out any more delay, meet Ronda and read her interesting story!

     My name is Ronda Davenport

• I am the Regional Supervisor of the middle California Region – home to 24 Pony Clubs and 4 Pony Club Riding Centers!
• My favorite thing to do in Pony Club is goof off with my MidCal members — water fights are great fun!
• My hobbies outside of Pony Club are eating chocolate and hiking, traveling and reading, baking sweets, camping and having fun.
• The people in my family are my husband Tom, daughters Kate and Emily
• My pets are new puppy Annie and cats Henry and George
• One funny and very tragic story of me (I have many) happened when I was five or six and was traveling in the backseat of the family station wagon.  I am one of seven kids, so we were piled in the back.  The windows were down as it was a hot summer day.  My Mom was driving along a country road.  Apparently a pheasant was flying perpendicular to the car.  The pheasant flew in the car window,  conked me in the head and died in my lap.  It was total chaos with feathers everywhere and me screaming — imagine getting hit in the head by a pheasant?!  My mom though had no idea what had happened so she swerved off to the side of the road to assess the situation.  With seven kids, there is always a situation.  It took us a moment to sort out that the pheasant had intersected the window at the exact perfect moment and hit me in the head.  Strange.  But strange things happen to me. 

 Didn't I say she is funny...