FOUNDERS AWARDS FOR 2013
The Founders’ Award, an honor reserved for Pony Club’s most worthy volunteers. This prestigious award is made each year to those who have made a significant contribution to Pony Club at the Local or Regional and National Levels over a period of 20 years or more. The recipients of the Founders Awards for 2013 are: Kevin Bowie, John Doolittle, Dr. Brad Gordon, and Patsy Mattingley.
Kevin Bowie
Kevin Bowie has lived all of her life in Maryland and calls Good Choice Farm in Clarksburg home. She has traveled for Pony Club in nearly every state and/or Region in this country. Some people’s bucket list is to visit every state in the US before they die. Kevin has more than likely already finished her list without even trying.
Kevin started in the Potomac Pony Club and finished up achieving her A while a member of Seneca Valley Pony Club. And ever since then she has helped USPC locally, regionally and nationally. In her own and neighboring regions, she has been involved in lessons, rallies, testings, clinics and you name it, as an organizer, coach, and chauffeur for PC members and horses.
At the regional and national level, Kevin has been either a member or the chair of the following committees: Show Jumping, Testing, Clinics, and D and C Standards. At the regional and national level she has organized or helped organize Eventing Rallies, Show Jumping Rallies, Quiz Rallies, and Testings from D-1 to the A level. Her favorite is the USPC Show Jumping Championships which she has been a part of for over 20 years.
Kevin has been a National Examiner for over 20 years and has been instrumental in developing many of the changes to the testing program, especially the Show Jumping and Hunter Seat Equitation Certifications. Teaching is her love and she has served as Regional Instruction Coordinator in her Region and has started many young riders on their way to becoming competent, independent and responsible riders and young people.
Currently Kevin is the Chair of the Centers Program and has run a center herself for a number of years. She has a herd of ponies and horses that she is using to start another generation of riders on their careers and she is teaching adults and their children.
Kevin was honored at the Jubilee Celebration held with the 2004 Annual Meeting and a National Activities Legend for her outstanding service in the area of Activities. She joined the extraordinary group of 150 individuals and she is a Life Member of USPC.
John Doolittle
John and his wife Dorothy, became involved with the Mendon Pony Club in the early 60’s, spending countless hours on projects and competitions. One of Dorothy’s specialties was scoring, and together they scored many Mendon Pony Club Rallies, as well as the Western New York Regional Rallies. They are parents of both a C and B rider, and John served as that club’s DC from 1967 – 1970.
In 1972, John became Chair of the Films Committee, a function that had been managed by the Secretary’s Office. He describes the duties of that committee: “We screened the individual films and discarded those beyond repair or now of sufficient interest to Pony Club. A commercial film distributor was engaged and a catalog was published. The prints were mainly of British three-day events and those of equestrian events of the Summer Olympics and were best suited for entertainment rather than training. In 1981, the decision was made to retire both our films and the committee, and to transfer the marketing of suitable VCR tapes to the USPC Bookstore as they became available.”
Continuing on the national level, Mr. Doolittle served as Secretary to the Board of Governors from 1981 – 1984, and was a member of the Strategic Planning Committee from 1984 – 1985. In addition to their time and energy, Mr. and Mrs. Doolittle are longtime supporters of USPC through the Annual Fund. Mr. Doolittle was named a National Legend at the Jubilee Celebration of USPC’s 50th Anniversary in 2004, in honor of his 20-plus years of service and dedication to Pony Club.
Following retirement, the Doolittles have settled in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where they reside today.
Brad Gordon
Dr. Brad Gordon has been involved with USPC for much of his life. A Life member and graduate A from Bath Pony Club, in Ohio, Brad is best known to the Pony Club world as an outstanding Chief Horse Management Judge, and more recently, in the Anatomy Room at many Annual Meetings.
He has been on the Combined Training Committee, and served on the Board of Governors. What many may not know, is that he has served on the Horse Management Committee for over ten years, in the 1980s, and again in the 1990s. Even when not actually on the HM committee, he continued to advise the committee on how to best share horse care information with members during rallies.
Throughout all of the time Dr. Gordon has spent in the barns with Pony Club members, he has also managed to have a very full career as a veterinarian. Earning his DVM at Ohio State, he did his internship at the University of Minnesota, earned a Masters Degree in Applied Surgical Physiology, and also did his residency in Equine Medicine and Surgery there. At the University of Georgia, Brad did a residency in Large Animal Surgery and Medical, teaching and research. He was an Assistant Professor of Large Animal Surgery at the University of Minnesota and a guest instructor in the Department of Physiology.
Dr. Gordon has been in private practice in Minnesota and has served as the Minnesota Racing Commission State Regulatory Veterinarian. He was the Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission Senior Veterinarian from 1993 to 2002, and worked at Equine Associates at the Prairie Meadows Racetrack from 2003 to the present. He currently owns and practices at the Equine Referral Clinic in Runnells, Iowa.
Brad was recognized as a National Instructions Legend at the 2004 Jubilee Celebration during the 2004 Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, for his service to USPC.
Patsy Mattingley
In 1990, then 13 year old daughter Jenny Mattingley came home to say that her Oakton, Virginia riding stable was going to become a housing development and all of the school horses were being sold and she needed a horse of her own! Although her mom had ridden in her youth, they had never owned a horse. Jenny became the proud owner of Nugget and a member of the Difficult Run Pony Club. That began a 23 year association with horses and Pony Club for mom Patsy Mattingley.
Only a year later, Patsy, husband Dave, and daughter Jenny moved to Southlake, Texas where Jenny spent most of her Pony Club years with Silver Stirrups Pony Club riding Nugget’s pasture mate, Whiskey River. As the Silver Stirrups D.C. and then the Red River Region Vice R.S. and R.S., Patsy became a true manager, thoroughly enjoying herself as she organized Rallies and ran the Region.
In 1998, the Mattingleys again moved. By this time, Jenny was in college and Patsy thought her Pony Club career was over. This wasn’t to be as Pony Club recognizes good volunteers and keeps them close. Settling in Sequim, Washington, on the Olympic Peninsula about two hours west of Seattle life with horses went on. The Northwest Region R.S. knew Patsy from previous Annual Meetings and asked her to come to a Regional meeting where she quickly found herself organizing the 1999 Annual Meeting in Seattle.
Patsy became a fixture in the Northwest Region and acted as a valuable advisor to regional and club officers. She worked with local leaders and parents to help resolve problems for the best benefit of the youth, their families and sponsors. Her efforts were encouraging and inspiring to members, sponsors, and officers.
In 2000 Patsy was invited to join the Board of Governors where she served two three-year terms, through 2006. During her tenure, she served as chairman of both the Governance and the Development Committees, revised the R.S. Handbook, taught at several leadership seminars, helped Regional Administration as a mediator with troubled clubs, chaired the 2001 Festival and ran the Festival commissary in 2004. From 2007 – 2009 she served on the Nominating, Development and Advisory Committees. In 2010 she was again appointed to the Board of Governors to fill a one-year term and continued to serve on the Development Committee. Currently, Patsy is a member of a national ad hoc fundraising sub-committee.
