If the words ‘bending poles’ and ‘sack race’ still bring a small thrill to your soul, you must have been the sort of pony mad child who loved nothing better than competing at a gymkhana.

For the uninitiated, the bending race involves riding your pony as fast as you can in and out of a row of upright poles, turning on a sixpence at the end and racing back again. To understand the sheer fun and exhilaration of this you have to have been a child on a small hairy pony, having the time of your life.

And it is something that children all over the world continue to have enjoy.

The Pony Club holds mounted games competitions, culminating in the UK in the Prince Philip Cup, which has been a feature of the Horse of the Year Show since 1957. Teams go through a series of area competitions and zone finals to qualify for this coveted trophy, making it one of the most hotly-contested events in the Pony Club calendar.

Teams on the island compete in the Mylchreest Winter Mounted Games indoor series and in the summer some of them will travel to the UK to take part in Pony Club Area Competitions.

However, in years gone by, to have any chance of joining a mounted games team you had to own your own pony. That was until Stella Hampton, who owns Ballawhetstone Stables riding school in Ballasalla, started giving the children she teaches the chance to compete in these competitions on the riding school ponies.

In 2017, she took a team to compete in the UK and, apart from Covid interruptions in 2020 and 2021, she has taken one every year since then.

They are currently practising for a trip to Townley Farm, in Lancashire, to compete in the Area Four mounted games qualifier. Stella will be taking no fewer than 10 ponies and 14 children there at the beginning of May. If they win there, they will go on to the Zone Finals in July.

Stella’s sister in law, Zoe Hampton, and Lucinda Taylor, who help Stella to organise and coach the children, will also travel with them. Zoe’s sons, Ed, 11, and George, 9, are on the team, as are Stella’s son Herbie, 11, and daughter Sydney, 8.

Zoe says: ‘It’s not just the cost of buying your child a pony, it’s the time for a lot of parents, especially if they work full time and have other children as well.’

The kids they coach have to compete against teams of children with their own ponies who obviously have the chance to ride and practise much more often.

Stella says: ‘It is a lot harder for these kids.’

Zoe says: ‘But they do all right. It’s not just about the speed, it’s also about the technicalities. And it’s about the keenness to want to do it: if they want to do it, you can train them. If they don’t want to do it then you can’t. And the more they do it, the better they get.’

And they do get a lot out it, Zoe adds: ‘They get friendship, enjoyment and a trip away and they rave about it forever after. It’s a lot more than just riding a horse.’

l Ballawhetstone Stables is holding pony rides on Monday, May 2, to raise money for the trip.

Adults and children can have a go.

You can book online at www.ballawhetstonestables.com.