Showing in the Cold

OUET at the end of the day on Sunday.

The team traveled to Painesville, Ohio, this past weekend. We were there to compete at a horse show hosted by Lake Erie College. It's hard to know what to expect whenever we travel to a horse show -- there's always horses we've never seen before and different ways shows are run -- but we can always expect one thing when we go to LEC: it will be COLD.

And this weekend was no exception. However, we were all pleasantly surprised that there wasn't any snow on the ground this trip. LEC has an indoor ring, of course, but it's insulated like a hockey rink and stays colder inside than it is outside.

Our morale stayed high the entire weekend despite the cold. We did not do as well overall as at our show. We got Reserve Champion Team on Saturday and placed third as a team on Sunday. I think this show was a good wake-up call to some of our freshman girls. They've now realized how hard they're going to have to work to stay first place in the region! The other teams are going to put up some stiff competition this year (Ohio State and LEC being our biggest competitors), but hopefully OU will work hard enough to stay ahead.

My rides this weekend were rather disappointing. My over-fences class on Saturday was certainly not my best. I drew a Thoroughbred gelding named Shrek. He was a sweet guy, and I have to give him credit for doing a good job. I just didn't feel very "in the zone," and the ride didn't go as well as it could have. I placed 4th in that class.

I felt like I had a really great ride in both of my flat classes (one on Saturday, one on Sunday), but I placed 6th (the lowest place that gets a ribbon) on both days! I was disappointed, because I knew I had had good rides both days. My coach, not shy to tell you what you've done wrong, even said to me, "Hannah, I don't know what happened. I thought you had first place." But that is all a part of horse showing. It is a subjective sport and you are only being judged by one person. Maybe the judge doesn't like your style of riding, or maybe they just didn't see you in a sea of horses and navy blue hunt coats. Sometimes you just have to deal with being disappointed and I took comfort in the fact that I at least got approval from my coach.

So it was a rather anti-climactic way to end my time as an IHSA rider. I will be graduating in about two weeks and won't be able to compete intercollegiately anymore. IHSA does have an alumni division though, so maybe I'll make my way back into the IHSA show ring someday. Showing IHSA has been a fun, challenging experience, but I think I'm ready to move on and get back to going to "real" horse shows.

Introduction, explanation

Hello, hello!

I am Hannah, and this is my blog about the Ohio University Equestrian Team (Hunt). I've been riding on the team ever since I was a shy little freshman, and this is my last quarter of both school and riding on the team. Graduating from college is a scary thought, but what scares me the most is how much I'm going to miss the team, our coach and, of course, the horses.

But let's get down to business. We've got a lot to cover.

I'm going to go ahead and assume that you, dear reader, know absolutely nothing about horses, horse showing, or the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association. If you happen to be an expert in these areas, please just gloss over all of this.

The Equestrian Team is a club sport here at OU. That means that anyone can join, we are self-governed, and we don't get mountains of money from the university. This also means that we are not in the NCAA, so we show in the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA). IHSA horse shows work a lot differently than normal shows, but we'll get to that in a minute.

I ride on the Hunt Team, which is the English style of riding. (Think jumping, fox hunting, what you see in the Olympics, etc. Basically, we're not cowgirls.) OU also has a Western team, but we'll focus on the hunt seat to keep it simple. Under the hunt discipline, IHSA has chosen for us to all ride equitation. This means that the rider is judged, rather than the horse. The rider must expertly ride her horse with grace and style, and any mistakes the horse appears to make are usually considered to be the rider's fault.

The reason IHSA has chosen equitation is because of the way the shows are run. In a normal horse showing situation all of the competitors bring their own horses on which to compete. They have been riding and practicing and training hard for the competition. The horse and rider have probably established a strong bond.

However, at an IHSA show, the school that is hosting the event provides the horses. Each rider must draw a horse out of a hat, get on the horse, and, having never ridden this horse before (unless, of course, her school is hosting the show), the rider will have to compete in a flat class or over fences.

Wait, flat? Over fences? What the heck?
Yes, I know, it's complicated. Bear with me, we're almost finished.

A flat class is simple -- the riders walk, trot and canter their horses around the arena while the judge watches. Occasionally the judges will choose to test the riders by making them drop their stirrups, or giving them a pattern to execute, or basically telling the riders to do whatever they want (when you are in the show ring, you do whatever the judge wants).

An over-fences class is more challenging. The riders are judged as they jump their horse over a course of 7 or 8 obstacles. The riders need to have good form over the fences, get their horses to the ideal take-off spot at each fence, as well as execute lead changes (flying or simple) when necessary.

All right, I know I just barfed a ton of information on you.

Here is a video that might make this a little more clear.
It is of me riding at Lake Erie College in a show last winter. I was riding Terrabella, a Thoroughbred mare, in the Intermediate over-fences division.



It was a decent enough ride to get me 2nd place.
Did you catch what cost me the blue ribbon?