ARARAT Pony Club will soon be the envy of clubs across Victoria with funding announced this week to construct a year-round covered equine arena.<\/p>\n
Ararat Rural City Council in partnership with Ararat Pony Club have secured close to $1.5 million in funding from the Australian Government\u2019s Play Our Way Grants Program.<\/p>\n
The program aims to provide greater opportunities for women and girls to access, participate and remain involved in sport and physical activity.<\/p>\n
The $1.5 million funding will support the construction of a covered equine arena, complete with lighting, to provide a climate-controlled riding space that is protected from rain and sunlight.<\/p>\n
The new arena will meet the needs of local women and girls, support increased sport and physical activity opportunities all year round in all weather, and help the club reach its full potential.<\/p>\n
The new facilities will also benefit a broad range of other users, including the Mount Cole Equestrian Association, Midland Zone of Pony Club Victoria, nearby pony clubs and other horse-related activities, as well as other sports, community and educational initiatives.<\/p>\n
The new covered sports arena for the Ararat Pony Club is supported by the Australian Government\u2019s Department of Health and Aged Care.<\/p>\n
Ararat Pony Club President, Helen Spencer, thanked council for supporting the grant application.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing to be able to have an all-weather undercover area. This will enable the club to plan more activities which aren\u2019t weather dependent. An undercover arena has been on our wish list for many years so it\u2019s great to see it coming to fruition,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t believe it would actually happen, that we would actually get the whole amount. It\u2019s amazing. When the news was delivered on Saturday there were quite a few tears,\u201d Ms Spencer said.<\/p>\n
Labor Senator Raff Ciccone said he was delighted the club\u2019s application had been successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cCongratulations to Ararat Rural City Council for their successful grant application. \u201cI\u2019m certain this project will have a very positive effect for women and girls in the Ararat region,\u201d Senator Ciccone said.<\/p>\n
Mayor Jo Armstrong visited the club on Wednesday and said she was delighted the project will proceed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis particular project will have appeal across the community. It\u2019s really exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cLocal sports are an integral part of rural communities. This new facility will help to provide more opportunities for women and girls to get involved with our local sporting groups,\u201d Cr Armstrong said.<\/p>\n
The Ararat Pony Club has over 170 members aged from three to 80 years old, and over 95 per cent are women and girls.<\/p>\n
Construction is expected to commence next year.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ARARAT Pony Club will soon be the envy of clubs across Victoria with funding announced this week to construct a year-round covered equine arena.
\nArarat Rural City Council in partnership with Ararat Pony Club have secured close to $1.5 million in funding from the Australian Government\u2019s Play Our Way Grants Program.
\nThe program aims to provide greater opportunities for women and girls to access, participate and remain involved in sport and physical activity.
\nThe $1.5 million funding will support the construction of a covered equine arena, complete with lighting, to provide a climate-controlled riding space that is protected from rain and sunlight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2909,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"coauthors":[31],"class_list":["post-2921","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/IMG_0171-PONY-79-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdqUu4-L7","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2921"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2921\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2921"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2921"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2921"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/theadvocate.net.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=2921"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}