10/23/2026
In 15 years of both covering this sport and riding with Emily Elek, I have never written an article about her, Piper Klemm writes. To know her is to know that the journalism needed to capture her would be almost impossible. Iāve never been up for the challenge. Iāve tried to pay others to capture her, to see her in a certain light, yet all of those drafts have either never arrived or fallen lifeless on the page.
This was finally the year we got a photoshoot, and as I sit here worrying about whether I will get her right, I am reminded, with some relief, that she doesnāt care. She doesnāt care what this article says, what the internet says, or much of anything else happening in the world. All she wants to do is train ponies.
When I decided that we needed to give away a pony in an essay contest of the May/June 2026 issue of The Plaid Horse, I picked up the phone to make the obvious call to Elek, the owner of Stonewall Ponies- Emily Elek, in Ixonia, Wisconsin.
As a trainer who has qualified more than a thousand ponies for Pony Finals and built one of the largest pony breeding, training, sales, and leasing operations in the country, I asked Elek, āCan we give away a pony in an essay contest?ā
āYes,ā Elek said without hesitation, before asking the only question that could possibly matter to her.
āCan I pick out which pony?ā
That answer sums up Elek: her signature nervous giggle and an instant āyes,ā followed by the insistence on choosing the right animal for the job. Sheās built an improbable career around doing the right thing and giving back, a philosophy that has made her one of the most influential pony trainers in America.
š Continue reading this article at https://www.theplaidhorse.com/2026/10/19/the-pony-maven-emily-elek-and-the-long-game/
šø Emily in Wellington, Florida, this winter with Sugarbrook Positron Blue (left) and Quicksilver High Note (right).
