Annual equestrian invitational beats the rain

Author: Tom McCann

While many sporting events fell foul of the weather this past weekend, members of the Middlebury equestrian team just donned their jackets, settled in their stirrups and grabbed the reigns of whichever steed they were assigned to mount - it was showtime.

Every year Middlebury hosts an invitational equestrian event, attended by a number of schools from around the region. This year, teams came from Mount Ida, Colby-Sawyer, the University of Vermont and Dartmouth to strut their stuff at the Equistry in New Haven, Vt.

After enormous amounts of preparation, from finding horses for the show to renting a public announcement system from Burlington, the show finally got under way Saturday morning. The show began with the Equitation Over Fences divisions, in which riders lead their horses over fences, following a previously established course. Competitors are watched by judges who are looking for correct body position of the riders and the fundamental ability to ride a horse correctly. Discussing the components the judges are watching for, Co-captain Mercy Trent '06 explained, "You get points for sitting up straight, keeping your heels down and eyes up, how accurate your distances to the fence are, how consistent you keep the pace of horses and that you follow the set course. You don't lose points for knocking a fence over, but it is a pretty good inclination that you are doing something wrong." She added, "If you fall off, you're disqualified."

Riders for the morning session are broken into three divisions: Novice, Intermediate and Open, the most advanced. In the afternoon however, six divisions of riders compete in the Equitation on the Flat section, including those who did not jump in the morning. While the riders from the morning compete in the afternoon in the same divisions, riders with less experience at horse shows also compete in Beginner Walk Trot, Beginner Walk Trot Canter and Advanced Walk Trot Canter, the three less-advanced divisions.

Trent explained, "The divisions are decided by the amount of show experience that someone has had before. There is an assumption that experience reflects ability, although that does not always prove to be the case."

In both the jumping and the flat events, seven points are awarded to the individual who places first, five for finishing second, four for third and so on down to one point for a sixth place finish. However, it does not end there. Each school designates a "Point Rider" for each division before horses are assigned and the show starts in earnest. Rather than having every rider for every school count all his or her points, only the points accumulated by the Point Rider count towards the final tally for each school. The school with the highest tally of points from their Point Riders will win the competition. In the event that two or more Point Riders end up with the most individual points, a "ride-off" is necessary to determine the "High Point-Rider" for the day. In the event last weekend, four riders finished with a first and a second place finish in their divisions, necessitating a ride-off of one additional flat round with those points added to the overall team tally.

Lest we think that riders not designated as Point Riders are riding with less incentive, they have their own personal point tally to take care of. Should riders accumulate 35 points in either the flat or jumping events over the course of their collegiate career, they place out of their class and move up to the next level. When this happens, the riders also earn the right to show at the Regional competition, usually held at Dartmouth in the spring, in the class that they placed out of.

While the Middlebury team did not win the competition outright, there were several performances of note. Junior Kim Ward finished second in both the fences and the flat, earning her enough points to "point-up" from Novice to Intermediate in both events. She will be accompanied to Regionals by Marisa Lipsey '06 who placed second in Advanced Walk Trot Canter, pointing her up to Novice. Karen Bullock '07 also pointed-up from Advanced Walk Trot Canter to Novice, earning a trip to Dartmouth. Trent was another rider who excelled, winning the fences in her Intermediate class, topping the 35-point mark for the right to compete at Open Fences for the next show and a place at Regionals. She commented, "I was really happy and hopefully by the end of the season I'll be pointing-up in both flats as well as fences."

Speaking of the event as a whole, Trent was full of praise for everyone involved. "It was really good. Even though we had to move inside because of the rain the whole show went very well and the team was great. We have a lot of first-year riders that helped a lot. We also made a lot of money for the team which is great, and there were no major disasters so I'm really happy with it," she noted.

With more shows on the way, especially with Regionals in the spring, there is plenty more riding to be done by the Middlebury equestrian team, but not here. The annual Middlebury invitational has taken place and was a huge success, leaving the organizational burden in the hands of other schools in the region. The horses have been taken back, the extra macaroni and cheese tossed and with the return of the public address system to Burlington, the curtain finally came down on the Middlebury equestrian invitational.