Dani Vilaró

Dani Vilaró has had a love for an­i­mals, and in par­tic­u­lar horses, all his life. So it only seemed nat­ural for him to open the Poni Club Girona in July 2014, after decades in­volved in the pro­fes­sional world of horse rid­ing, and es­pe­cially per­sonal de­vel­op­ment and ther­a­pies for chil­dren, as well as eques­trian tourism. Dani is the dri­ving force be­hind the Poni Club Girona, with the aim of pro­vid­ing qual­ity in­struc­tion for all ages, al­low­ing his cus­tomers to enjoy won­der­ful rid­ing ex­pe­ri­ences while giv­ing them the chance to enjoy con­tact with an­i­mals in the open air. “More and more peo­ple are be­com­ing pas­sion­ate about this sport, which in Cat­alo­nia is well ahead of the rest of Spain, but be­hind the rest of Eu­rope, as for too many years it was in the hands of the mil­i­tary and rich peo­ple, which has made its progress dif­fi­cult. Now though, there are lots of in­flu­ences from abroad. Still, many peo­ple don’t even con­sider it a sport, when in fact it’s a very com­plete one, help­ing you work many mus­cles and parts of the body you wouldn’t nor­mally use,” says Dani.

1.​Ponies and horses: we offer ac­tiv­i­ties for ages 2 to 16 years old. The small ponies em­body the club’s main con­cept: Poni Games, start­ing from 2 to 3 years old, pro­vid­ing the base for fu­ture rid­ers.

2. Poni Games: our main new ac­tiv­ity, which is based on rid­ing games, is fo­cused on three con­cepts: team work, shar­ing and learn­ing through games. The hour-long Poni Play con­sists of a cir­cuit and a work­shop, where chil­dren are ac­com­pa­nied by par­ents. Chil­dren get a chance to han­dle, em­brace, groom, brush and sad­dle the horses, under the watch­ful su­per­vi­sion of an in­struc­tor, for a safe, bond­ing ex­pe­ri­ence. The par­ents get ex­pla­na­tions of the rules and how ponies be­have, which is basic, as they will be in charge of tak­ing the ponies through an in­ter­ac­tive cir­cuit. The ac­tiv­ity is every Sun­day and hol­i­days from 10am to 2pm dur­ing term time.

3. Hel­mets and body pro­tec­tors: to pro­tect the head and back. Safety and com­fort for both the horse and rider are es­sen­tial. We need to be cau­tious and ride horses of the right size.

4. Sad­dles, bri­dles and safety stir­rups: equip­ment used for rid­ing needs to be cleaned and left in good order, that’s fun­da­men­tal.

5. Wheel and cones: used for the Poni Games.

6. Sad­dle blan­ket: used for keep­ing the horses warm and dry in win­ter and to pro­tect them from in­juries. Horses need to be groomed care­fully, using tools like hoof picks, curry and mane combs, and body brushes.

7. Our team: a good group of well-trained young in­struc­tors who work hand-in-hand and love horses. We also do coach­ing with horses. Horse rid­ing has ben­e­fits for both emp­tional sta­bil­ity and good phys­i­cal con­di­tion. Con­tact with horses helps peo­ple: they are not judge­men­tal, are very sen­si­tive and re­cep­tive and act like a mir­ror, cap­tur­ing your emo­tional state, show­ing you your in­ter­nal con­flict, and help­ing you re­solve it. Many have man­aged to solve their prob­lems with­out coach­ing, the horse is the ther­a­pist.

8. La Brida: our dog. All an­i­mals in­ter­act with the chil­dren, we have a few dogs and hens, each has its own role in shar­ing ex­pe­ri­ences in the open air.

9. The good lo­ca­tion: hav­ing a place that’s easy to get to with free park­ing is key. We are lo­cated near Girona, 10 to 15 min­utes by car from city cen­tre.