IHSA

How do riders, trainers and judges account for the difference in horse abilities in a competition based on catch rides?

Students who compete on an Intercollegiate Horse Show Association team know the drill. This weekend, the horse that you show makes equitating a bit difficult. It drags you down the lines but has a stride the size of a postage stamp and jumps like a deer. Lead changes? No thanks. To put it nicely, you don’t exactly “click,” and who could blame you?

Since the school began offering riding classes in the 1930s, Centenary has paved the way for equestrian education.

Centenary College’s Intercollegiate Horse Show Association hunt seat team riders had no expectations when they arrived at IHSA Nationals last April. They wanted to be successful, but their goals centered on riding well and having fun.

So it was a sweet surprise when they walked away with the school’s first Collegiate Cup championship
since 1979.

The best collegiate riders in the United States will meet in Lexington, Ky., May 6-9, for the 43rd Intercollegiate Horse Shows Association National Championships.

Centenary College will seek to defend their Collegiate Cup hunter seat team national championship. Don Stewart of Ocala, Fla., and Susie Schoellkopf of Buffalo, N.Y., will judge the hunt seat classes.

Approximately 500 individual riders from North America will compete, representing more than 370 teams and 8,200 individual riders.

Two-point without stirrups can only mean one thing: It’s Tournament of Champions time!

This week TUEQ will head to the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., to give the IHSA the ol’ one-two (or at the very least keep our heels down, execute lead changes where appropriate and find eight jumps stylishly).

While we had a blast at the last Tournament at Centenary College in New Jersey, we’re hungry for some better placings and more confident outings this time around.

As the reigning national champions and the host of this year’s Collegiate Holiday Tournament of Champions, Centenary College went into the competition, held Dec. 5 in Hackettstown, N.J., with some significant advantages.

The outcome was impressive, if predictable—Centenary’s two teams finished champion and reserve champion of the 28 teams in attendance.

Now I can finally say it: TUEQ’s fall semester is OVER! It’s definitely bittersweet. I’m super excited to have the last few weeks of the semester to say goodbye to friends that are going abroad and to work on my final exams, but I will definitely miss the massive quantities of team time I’ve enjoyed for the past few months.

We’ve been invited to the Holiday Tournament of Champions at Centenary College this weekend, and on Friday six of us will pack up my car and take a road trip down south. And by south I mean anywhere it’s 5 degrees warmer than Boston. And by that I mean central New Jersey.

It’s hard to believe that TUEQ’s first-semester regular season is over, but it is. We have five shows under out belts, a lot to reflect on, and a lot to be happy about. 

First, I should catch you up on our most recent shows. The day after our Tufts show was the Boston University show hosted at Holly Hill Farm in Hanover, Mass.

Hosting a horse show, no matter how small or informal, is a massive undertaking.  It requires hours of preparation, an inhuman amount of patience, and several very supportive, flexible and understanding co-coordinators.  Oh, and a lot of cash.