50 Practical Horseman April 2011
A Taste of Collegiate Riding A new event exposes young riders to the vast opportunities and choices that await them. Story and Photos by Jennifer Wood Competitors enter the ring for an under-saddle class. Young riders milled around the schooling ring early one Saturday morning, checking name tags on the horses saddle pads to figure out who they would ride for the first time in the show ring. Volunteers couldn t offer any advice on the horses; riders would have to go on instinct and experience once judging started. With their horses found, riders mounted, adjusted their stirrups and headed into the ring. The Open Equitation flat class kicked off the inaugural three-day College Preparatory Invitational Horse Show at the Palm Beach International Equestrian Center in Wellington, Florida, in mid-january. The competition and an awards banquet were held Saturday, with educational seminars bookending the event Marielle Golden, a high-school Friday and Sunday. The goal was to expose junior from Boca Raton, Florida, earned a blue ribbon in the Open the nearly 120 riders from grades 6 12 and Equitation Section C class. their families to collegiate riding and the colleges and universities that have equestrian programs. In addition to the riders, representatives from 16 colleges and universities attended the event. The three-day event provided invaluable information about college riding programs by top equestrian collegiate coaches from all over the country, said April 2011 Practical Horseman 51
ABOVE: As volunteers help hold horses, riders find their mounts, adjust their stirrups and head into the ring for competition. LEFT: An awards banquet honors the class winners and scholarship recipients. CPI co-organizer Jeanne Rouco-Conesa. Families learned about the life a rider will have in college and noted that their collegiate experience will vary depending on the organization that governs the school s riding program. Riders and parents agreed that the CPI experience was positive and educational. It was really cool to get to try this out because it s not usually an opportunity that you get, to walk in there on a horse you ve never ridden, said high-school junior Kaitlan Parker, of Cold Spring Harbor, New York, commenting on a staple of collegiate riding competing on unfamiliar horses with little-to-no warm-up time. It was great exposure to what it s going to be like at college with team riding, agreed Kaitlan s mother, Carol. It s great to connect with recruiters and talk to them. We haven t really been to colleges yet, so now we have some good information to know what we need to do. I can see us writing thank-you letters and making some visits to the schools she liked, making a video and those sorts of things. This is the start of it. The Competition CPI is the brainchild of Jeanne Rouco- Conesa and Heidi Lengyel. Heidi runs Wall Street Farm in Wellington, Florida, with her husband, Steve Lengyel, and Jeanne is connected to the sport through her daughter, an avid rider who wants to compete at the intercollegiate level. We went to the College Bound Invitational [in Newberry, Florida] this summer, Heidi said, explaining how she and Jeanne came up with the idea. I took kids there every year because the information they and their parents gained from the seminars involved was the best part of it. As their plans took off, Heidi and Jeanne worked on finding horses for the 120 riders to compete in four different equitation levels on the flat and over fences (Open, Intermediate, Limit, Novice), finding seminar speakers, inviting college and university representatives and securing sponsors, with Dover Saddlery stepping up as the title sponsor. They sought judges who came from an eminent group: top hunter rider John French, grand-prix show jumper Georgina Bloomberg and Olympic show jumper Nona Garson. When the two organizers secured the PBIEC location, the grounds of the FTI Winter Equestrian Festival, things fell into place. They started getting out the word and soon had 300 applications for the 120 rider slots. There were no requirements. It was a first come, first serve basis, Heidi said. It wasn t just the girl who does the Medal/ Maclay with a $500,000 equitation horse. I wanted the girl from Minnesota who doesn t have a horse and saved to get here. At least 50 percent of the riders came from out of state, as well as from Canada and Bermuda. The competition s 20 classes were run under a hybrid of Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association and Interscholastic Equestrian Association rules. IHSA was founded in 1967 to allow college students to participate in horse shows regardless of financial status or riding level. IEA was formed in 2002 to promote and improve the quality of equestrian instruction and competition available to middle- and secondary-school students. (For more on IHSA, see IHSA Facts at right; for more on IEA, go to www.rideiea.com). For the CPI format, there was no warm-up, Heidi said. In the ring, [riders] had two jumps that were clearly marked. They got to jump them and stop or go 52 Practical Horseman April 2011
IHSA Facts The Intercollegiate Horse Show Association was founded on the principle that any college student should be able to participate in horse shows, regardless of financial status or riding level, while emphasizing learning, sportsmanship and team spirit. IHSA serves more than 370 North American colleges and universities, representing nine zones and more than 8,700 students. Students may compete in Hunter Seat, from Walk-Trot to Open Fences (3-foot-6), and Western Horsemanship, from Walk-Jog to Open Reining. Since 1974, the IHSA National Championships have been held each May at a collegiate or equestrian venue. (This year they return to the Kentucky Horse Park, May 5 8.) Riders who aspire to a national championship like the Cacchione Cup for High-Point Hunter Seat Rider start by competing in their division at IHSA shows during the semester and accumulating points toward Regional Finals. Each region then sends its top two or three hunter-seat individual riders per division and one team to its Hunter Seat Zone Championship, where the top two individual riders per division and two high-point teams move on to Nationals. The IHSA scholarship branch, Intercollegiate Equestrian Foundation, annually recognizes achievement through scholarships including the $1,800 Jack Benson, $1,800 Joan Johnson and $1,000 Jon Conyers Memorial Scholarships. Since 2003, more than $60,000 in grants for IHSA scholarships have been awarded by The EQUUS Foundation. For more information, visit www.ihsainc.com. on, and they weren t judged on those [first two fences]. For the flat, they got on, adjusted their stirrups and went in the ring. There s really no preparation to the riding. It s pretty similar; in the IHSA there are no schooling jumps. In the IEA, riders get two schooling jumps, but they are usually outside the ring. Rider Kelsey Swanson, 17, of Wellington, Florida, who does not own a horse and competes at the 2-foot-6 level, was surprised at how the CPI opened her eyes to the world of collegiate riding. It was good talking to all of the colleges, she said. My guidance counselor doesn t know much about equestrian programs, so it was good to come here and get the information. I was planning on doing community college for a year to transition and have a year to keep riding before I went away. It s helped me know more about the schools that offer what I m looking for. While Eveline Smith, 18, of Wellington, Florida, is a horse-show veteran and has competed in IEA shows, the CPI gave her a new perspective. Some of the kids are used to riding their one horse, where I m used to getting on horses and going, she explained. I met quite a few kids, some from Wellington who I didn t know, and I met a lot of kids from out of the state who, hopefully, I ll keep in contact with. CPI also met the expectations of Virginia Trail, a trainer from Houston, Texas, who brought several of her clients. It s like a college fair but shows equestrian sport, she said. This is a better format for kids who can t show all of the time. Doing the collegiate thing is like being a professional, where you have to get on a horse and go in the ring. It s a learning experience, and they get to know they re not the best and learn from their mistakes. You don t get the nice horse all of the time. I was really pleased with it and had a blast. In addition to explaining what they were looking for in college riders, school April 2011 Practical Horseman 53
NCAA Facts Boo Major, University of South Carolina s head coach, spoke about the National Collegiate Athletic Association Equestrian Varsity experience at CPI. Here are some of her insights. Different schools look for different types of people. Whereas the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association s goal is to give opportunities to everyone and has different riding levels, a school with an NCAA varsity team takes just the Open-level riders, the riders who have done 3-foot-6 in hunters, equitation or jumpers. Riders need to understand that NCAA riders are drawn from a very small pool. There are currently 23 NCAA schools that offer equestrian, so there are only so many spots on a team, and not everyone is going to get on the team. The good news is that there are many Division I and II schools expressing interest in adding equestrian, so the opportunities should be growing. When we reach 40 schools, we will be able to become a fullfledged NCAA sport, which will be fantastic for equestrian sport. My advice is to start planning what you want to get out of a college riding experience early. Don t say, I can t do this because I don t have enough money. There are opportunities for talented riders. By starting early and trying to get to the 3-foot-6 level, you can do it. The format for NCAA shows include four events: equitation on the flat and over fences, horsemanship and reining. At each show, there are just two schools, each with five competitors, and a total of five horses. A rider from each school is paired with a horse. On the flat, each rider memorizes and performs a pattern. The person with the highest score wins. Each rider then jumps a course and gets scored; whomever has the highest score on each horse wins, and whichever school has the most points wins. The competition season culminates with the Varsity Equestrian National Championships, and each year there are three titles at stake: Overall Team Champion, Hunt Seat Team Champion and Western Team Champion. Competing on an NCAA team is really fun and very different. I love the head-to-head format. I like competing against one school; there gets to be more rivalry between the schools. There is also no luck of the draw. You could have a difficult horse, but the other team has to ride it, too. For more information, visit www.varsityequestrian.com. representatives also got an opportunity to see up-and-coming talent. For me, it s been really good because I can kill two birds with one stone. I can see riders at this event and then tomorrow go watch kids in the Medal and Maclay classes [at the FTI Winter Equestrian Festival], said Boo Major, University of South Carolina s head coach. Not Just a Horse Show In addition to Saturday s all-day competition, college and university coaches talked about riding at the collegiate level at a seminar Friday night. Riders learned they need to make sure potential colleges have programs that match their riding interests and goals. For example, NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association] schools require daily training in the gym and at the barn, so successful students are those who manage their time for study wisely, Jeanne said. An IHSA school s demands on the rider vary from school to school, some schools requiring training April 2011 Practical Horseman 55
lessons once a week to as much as five times a week. Riders who attend schools that have club teams are committed to lessons only once or twice a week and don t have to attend all the intercollegiate shows in the school s roster. The most important message these families took home was to do your research, look first to the colleges that offer your choice of studies, then narrow them down by choice of riding team. Eddie Federwisch, the coach at Virginia Intermont College, agreed. I think the differences [between IHSA and NCAA] are gigantic. As far as the colleges, it puts us in contact with riders early. All of us agree that young riders need to pick what they want to do for a career and then put the horses around it. Sunday-morning learning seminars included topics such as College Sports Track, Top 5 Exercises for Equestrians and Head Injuries in Young Equestrians. Horse shows around the country normally do not offer such sessions, Jeanne said. Most families could use great information on ways to position their children for successful paths to universities and colleges where they will obtain college degrees and will hopefully compete in a sport they love. CPI also awarded four scholarships: Lauren Abunassar, a sophomore from Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, won the $750 Essay Contest while Victoria Griffith, a freshman from Wellington, Florida, was awarded $500 as the rider with the highest number of points after placing first in both of her Limit Equitation (flat/over fences) classes. Kelsey Swanson won the $500 Champion of Service Award for logging many hours volunteering at the Vinceremos Therapeutic Riding Center for four years. Working with disabled riders, you learn different skills for dealing with people, she said. Eveline Smith, a member of Heidi s Wall Street Farm IEA team and winner of the Intermediate Equitation (flat), won the Horsemanship Test Award for answering 45 questions ranging from equine anatomy to general knowledge. My mom was a national 56 Practical Horseman April 2011
Pony Club examiner, so I ve been drilled on that stuff since I could talk! she said. Looking Ahead In addition to organizing the event, Heidi brought 20 horses from her farm for the event. She had horses donated (some for sale, marked with yellow tags on their saddle pads) from generous trainers like Don Stewart, Bill Schaub, Sporthorse Int l, Nona Garson, Brock Clermont, Carriage Hill Farm, Anne Pennington and more. Heidi s husband, Steve, a USEF r judge, was the course designer, and he also offered his training services to any riders at the event without their coaches. The horses were a tolerant bunch, from standing in the schooling ring waiting for their next ride, to jumping courses with unfamiliar riders. We had 245 rides and nobody fell off, Heidi said with a smile. And none of them had ever ridden these horses before. The horses were so great. We had them all braided. I wanted horses who looked like they could walk into a show ring here. Volunteers also played a vital part. Heidi hired 10 grooms and an organizer to oversee the horses, but all of the horse holders were volunteers. Vinceremos Therapeutic Riding Center sent 24 people, and the local IEA teams also sent people to help. We couldn t have done it without them, she said. Heidi and Jeanne agreed that next year will be even better. Along with doubling the entries for 2012, dressage will be added, with the hopes of adding Western the following year, at the request of NCAA coaches. Said Jeanne, I believe that our show has informed and energized a large group of college-bound riders and their families to what is available to them in collegiate riding and how they can succeed in making their collegiate experience a great one. For more about riding in college, go to www.practical HorsemanMag.com. For more information about CPI, go to www.collegeprepinvitational.com. April 2011 Practical Horseman 57