Trip Harting Fund for Graduate or Current Pony Club Members

The Trip Harting Fund was created with donations from Trip's friends and colleagues after he passed away in 2008. This fund will provide an annual $1,000 grant to a current or graduate rider with a Pony Club Certification of A, B, or C to attend an educational event of their choice.  Preference will be given to riders with an A or B certification.

The online application and required documents must be received by TDF on or before March 25th. A final decision will be announced by May 1st; therefore, the grant must be used for an event that falls after May 1st of the year in which you apply.  The recipient will have up to one year to use the grant.

Additional Grant Information:

• Applicant must be a U.S. Citizen or Permanent Resident.
• Funding cannot be used for competition entries, vet and/or farrier expenses, or the purchase of a horse or equipment. Funding must be used for the event/training specified in the grant application.
• A rider may not receive the grant in consecutive years.
• The committee reserves the right to not award a grant in any given year if they determine that no candidate has met the criteria. Funds would then be held until the following year. The applications and discussions of the selection committee are confidential and their decisions are final.
• If the grant recipient is unable to attend the specified event/training, TDF must be notified as soon as possible. Approval for a change in the use of funds is at the discretion of TDF and the Grant Selection Committee.

The application link is found in the right-hand sidebar (desktop computers) or by scrolling down (mobile).

About Trip Harting

Raised in Potomac, MD, where his father founded the Potomac Horse Center, Trip Harting began riding when he was 6-years-old. By the age of 15, he became the youngest member of the U.S. Pentathlon Team. Trip showed jumpers at the Grand Prix level and competed internationally in three-day events, but he found his true passion in the dressage ring. Outside of competition, Trip was revered as a brilliant trainer and clinician. He taught hunt seat equitation, dressage and eventing for more than 30 years. Trip’s real love, however, was working with youth riders.

His extensive involvement with the Junior/Young Rider dressage program included serving as the chairman for the California Dressage Society and the USDF, directing and managing the CDS Junior Championships and serving as USDF Region 7 Director. In 2001, Trip accepted the position of coach and chef d’equipe of the USPC Team at the North American Junior Dressage Championship. The USPC honored him as a living legend in 2004.

Trip was a longtime member of the USPC Dressage Committee, and judged the dressage division at the USPC Championships on many occasions. He promoted the introduction of musical freestyles and quadrilles into the team competition at Pony Club rallies, and was known for his cheerful encouragement to every rider, “Have a great ride!” Trip taught young riders many times at the USPC Festival, and was a frequent guest speaker on “The View From C” at USPC Annual Meetings. Trip also helped create the USPC upper level specialty ratings in Dressage, introduced in 2007.

During his last four years, Trip performed countless hours of volunteer work for recovering drug and alcohol addicts and shared his own personal battle with drugs in the documentary film entitled, Trip To Hell And Back, released in early August. The biography won grand prize for best short documentary at the Rhode Island International Film Festival.