Youth Badge Scheme

40 achievement badges for young western riders, earned through learning and evidence. Sign up for a one-off fee of £20; each badge costs £4.

Forty badges to collect, from caring for your pony to riding your first reining pattern. Learn something new, show what you can do, and build a collection to be proud of.

How it works

  1. Join the scheme. A one-off £20 gets you the handbook and a place at badge sessions, in person or on Zoom.
  2. Pick a badge. Start wherever you like. Purple is the place to begin, and the badges get harder through green and red to the yellow discipline badges.
  3. Learn and show what you can do. Work through the tasks in your handbook and keep your evidence as you go: written work, photos, videos, worksheets, or a WES Professional seeing you do it.
  4. Get it signed off. The Youth Officer signs off your badge. Then buy the real badge for £4 and wear it with pride.
The WES Youth Achievement Badge Scheme handbook, a navy spiral-bound book with a horse's head on its cover, on a wooden table with a lariat.
Photo: Western Equestrian Society

Evidence can be written work, photographs, videos, worksheets, or confirmation from a WES Professional. Send it to the Youth Officer through the contact page, or bring it to a lesson with a WES Professional, a badge session or a WES event.

Why parents love it

  • Real skills with horses. Grooming, feeding, hoof care, tack, first aid and riding: forty badges cover the whole of looking after and riding a horse.
  • Confidence that grows. Every badge is a goal they can reach, and every one they finish is something to be proud of.
  • Care, welfare and safety first. The first badges are about looking after a horse properly, and first aid for horses and for people is part of the scheme.
  • Learning with qualified people. Badges can be signed off in lessons with a WES Professional, at badge sessions and at WES events, as well as worked on at home.
  • Progress you can see. The handbook lists every task, so you can both see how far they have come and what comes next.
  • Good value. £20 to join, with the handbook and badge sessions included, then £4 for each physical badge they earn.
  • Join WES as a youth member. Youth membership is half the full price, and riders aged 9 or under on 1 January join free as Little Britches. Join WES.
A young rider in a pink riding hat lopes a palomino horse in a western saddle round an indoor arena.
Photo: Sent to Moments That Matter
A smiling young rider in a riding hat, with a rosette, sits on a grey pony led by two adults in cowboy hats.
Photo: Sent to Moments That Matter
Two young riders in riding hats sit on their horses in western saddles in an indoor arena.
Photo: Sent to Moments That Matter

“I hope you find the Achievement Badge Scheme both rewarding and motivating.” Dani O'Brien, Youth Officer

Join the scheme

£20, once. It includes the handbook and regular badge sessions, in person or on Zoom.

Join the badge scheme

Buy your badges

Finished a badge and gathered all its evidence? Order the real badge to wear, £4 each.

Get your badge

Find a badge day

Badge sessions run in person and on Zoom, and badges can be worked on at WES clinics and events. See what is coming up.

See events

Talk to your area

Every WES area has people who can help a young rider get started. Find yours and say hello.

Find your area

Join WES

Youth membership is half the full price, and riders aged 9 or under on 1 January join free as Little Britches.

Join WES