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EnglishWhat Values and Integrity Standards Does Pony Club Australia Follow?
Updated
Pony Club Australia® states six core values — community, integrity, horse welfare, innovation, kindness and accessibility — and commits to the Sport Integrity Australia National Integrity Framework, which it says keeps its sport "clean, fair, and safe for everyone." Those two things are the short answer. The longer answer matters if you are a parent weighing up a club, a coach or official wondering what you are signing up to, or a member who has seen something that does not sit right: the values describe the culture the organisation says it wants, and the integrity framework is the mechanism behind the "report an integrity issue" route on its site.
The six values, and what each one implies in practice
Pony Club Australia describes its values as being "at the heart of everything we do," and frames them as the basis for "a safe and welcoming community where everyone feels they belong." Read as a set, they cover three different things: how people treat each other (community, kindness, accessibility), how the sport is run (integrity), and how the horses are treated (horse welfare), with innovation sitting alongside as a willingness to keep improving.
| Value | What it points to |
|---|---|
| Community | A club environment where members, parents, coaches, officials and volunteers belong |
| Integrity | Clean, fair and safe sport, backed by the National Integrity Framework |
| Horse welfare | Horse care and handling treated as central, not incidental |
| Innovation | Willingness to develop and update how the organisation does things |
| Kindness | Day-to-day conduct between members and with horses |
| Accessibility | Making the club environment open to people regardless of background or experience level |
The organisation explicitly says the environment suits both beginners and experienced riders: "Whether you're just starting out or have years of experience, Pony Club is a place where you can learn, grow, and connect." Accessibility is therefore not just an abstract value — it is the stated reason the club positions itself as inclusive rather than elite.
Where the values come from: skills beyond riding
The values are not presented as a standalone code. Pony Club Australia ties them to what members are meant to develop: resilience, confidence, problem-solving, communication, responsibility, teamwork, leadership, discipline and loyalty. It describes these as "life skills" that members carry beyond the club, and says the aim is for members to "grow into well-rounded individuals."
That framing explains why the value list leans on character words like kindness and loyalty rather than purely sporting ones. If you are evaluating a club for a child, this is the organisation's own statement of what it thinks it is developing — useful as a benchmark to hold a local club to, not a guarantee of what any individual club delivers day to day.
The integrity standard: Sport Integrity Australia's National Integrity Framework
The concrete commitment is this: Pony Club Australia® "proudly follows Sport Integrity Australia's National Integrity Framework, ensuring our sports remain clean, fair, and safe for everyone."
The National Integrity Framework is Sport Integrity Australia's set of policies for national sporting organisations. For a member or parent, the practical meaning is that integrity matters at Pony Club are handled under a recognised national framework rather than an ad hoc club process. The site links this commitment to two actions:
- Read our integrity policies — the published policies that set out expected conduct and how issues are handled.
- Report an integrity issue — the route for raising a concern.
If you need to know exactly what conduct is covered, what the reporting thresholds are, or what happens after a report, the published policies are the authoritative source — the website's summary does not spell out those details, so read the policies themselves rather than relying on the values list.
How to use this if you are choosing a club or raising a concern
If you are choosing a club: treat the values and the integrity commitment as the standard to check against. Ask the club how it handles horse welfare in lessons, how it includes riders of different experience levels, and who a member would approach with a concern. The national body's stated position gives you something specific to compare local practice to.
If you want to raise an issue: start with the "Report an integrity issue" link on the Pony Club Australia site, and read the integrity policies first so you know which category your concern falls into and what information the process expects from you. Reporting through the national framework is the route the organisation itself points to, rather than only raising it informally within a club.
If you are a coach, official or volunteer: the framework is the standard you are working under, not just a member-facing statement. The values list — particularly horse welfare, kindness and accessibility — is a reasonable summary of the conduct expected in a supportive club environment.
What the site does not tell you
The website summary does not list the individual policies inside the framework, the timeframes for handling a report, or the consequences for a breach. It also does not describe how values are enforced at club level. For any of those, go to the integrity policies themselves and, where relevant, to Sport Integrity Australia's own material on the National Integrity Framework.