Equestrian team hosts annual tournament

Author: Sarah Bryan

This fall, hard work, dedication and sincere love of ponies are paying off as the Middlebury equestrian team travels around the east coast, saddles up and brings home the ribbons. While the women do spend a lot of time on the road, on Oct. 11, over 100 students and 22 horses met here in Vermont to compete in Middlebury's annual horse show - an event organized, set up and basically run by the Middlebury women.

Three different events occur at each show, all of which include three classes based on skill level. Equitation on the flat, equitation over fences and walk, trot and canter are the events, while the skill levels rank in order from novice to intermediate to open.

Any number of riders from each school can compete in each class, but only one participant is designated as the point rider, whose points go to the overall team score. Each participant is judged on her equitation, or style, and earns points for each event in which she participates.

Once riders accumulate a certain number of points, they earn the honor of moving up to the next class and are invited to the regional championship show in the spring.

During the intercollegiate shows, riders compete on unfamiliar horses drawn at random. This tradition evens the playing field and often leads to unexpected excitement in the rink.

"While it sometimes can be difficult to ride a horse you've never been on, I enjoy the challenge," said rider Ruthie Reinken '10. "If we all rode our own horses, the bigger schools with more resources could have horses that are easier to handle, therefore giving them an unfair advantage and letting the horse do the work instead of the rider. Instead, we use a system that forces the rider to take control and adapt to the tendencies of the horse."

Kate Selby, the former Regional President of the Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association, has coached Middlebury's team since its inception in 1995. She owns and runs the barn where the women practice and juggles time between running her barn and teaching the team. Out of the 20 people who take lessons once a week, however, only eight women travel and compete in the intercollegiate shows.

"We may be small, but we are mighty," claimed rider Miriam Johnston '10. "We have a close-knit team that gets along really well. We have a lot of fun together on the road and our positive attitudes show in our results."

The eight women who did compete at the recent Middlebury show kicked up a storm, taking home ribbons left and right. Katie Conroy '12 scored as the high point rider and won first in novice equitation on the flat. Mindy Harvey '12 took first in novice equitation over fences, and Conroy scored close behind in third. Captains Thea Morrison '10 and Kelsey Johnson '09 also finished well. Morrison finished fifth in fences and third on the flat; Johnson scored fourth in open flat and fith in open fences, while Johnston took second in the walk trot.

Next weekend the team travels to Mount Ida in Newton, Mass., and the riders wrap up their fall season at the University of New Hampshire on Nov. 1.