Intercollegiate Horse Show Association or College Equestian Team Experience?

KellyAssauer

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I'm looking for anyone who might be able to describe to me some of the 'experiences' of being a rider/contestant on a college level equestrian team.

How the team practices, travels, what sort of events -formal or informal- are held by the team or it's members other than the actual competition.


Thank you!

-kells-
 

jeseymour

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I coached an Intercollegiate team for a couple of seasons in the 1980s. I would be happy to share my experiences, although I don't know if things have changed since then. My team came for lessons at my barn a couple of times a week. We traveled to shows by school van. I had a couple of more advanced students who came more often and helped keep my school horses fit riding on their own. We never used our horses for shows and never had a show at our barn. Let me know if you want more specifics. This was in the northeast and we rode only hunt seat, no western.
 

KellyAssauer

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I'm not so sure the coach of the team would have the same experience level as the team members...

I guess I was looking more for the social aspects of the team members. When they gathered, why they gathered, were there formal occasions, get-togethers before or after events, what sort of accommodations did they have on the road... a little more of the student rider's perception of the experience.
 

Fenika

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I went to a few shows, rode in one. I was thrown on the horse and my own teammates couldnt be bothered to give me good instructions for this double rein insanity I was suddenly holding. I did horribly of course and didnt feel safe.

I staid on the team but didnt show. When I ended up on crutches I stopped going to meetings because I couldnt hike across campus on time. Not going to meetings was a cardinal sin and would prevent you from showing, but I'd already given that up. One day I ended up in the same building as the meeting was getting out. The girls that went by gave me dirty looks. I kept walking (on crutches still!) and never contacted those nuts again.

Lessons weren't always plesant either, though I did jump nearly 3' once on a horse that loved to jump. The instructor forgot to take it down to my level and it was part of the course. I decided to go for it rather than try to turn my horse and vere for the rail. It was the second jump of a five stride and stupid me didnt look up until a stride in.

Thats prolly my only good memory.
 

shaldna

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I'm looking for anyone who might be able to describe to me some of the 'experiences' of being a rider/contestant on a college level equestrian team.

How the team practices, travels, what sort of events -formal or informal- are held by the team or it's members other than the actual competition.


Thank you!

-kells-

My experiences are slightly odd because I went to an agricultural college, and so we had the trainers, horses and facilities on campus. Competition for team places was fierce because pretty much everyone on my course rode and rode well.

When we competed we primarily used the colleges horses, most of which were ex showjumpers and eventers. We would train in the evenings, twice a week, in addition to riding three hours every day anyway as part of our course.

Because our college is also used for international events, RDA, and the riding clubs, many competions tended to happen at our place. When we had to travel the college took us, either on the lorry or in trailers.
 

KellyAssauer

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I have a fair understanding of the rudiments of a college Team's events and practice when it comes to the rules and structure of the team. I guess what I was looking for in particular was the social side of the college experience.

IE: Was it common for equestrian team members to date each other? Or befriend and become room-mates? Did team-members throw regular after-match parties? Did they have end-of-season dinners or banquets?

I've heard the term: "Founder's party" or "Founder's Suite" as if there might have been a social gathering place for the 'other' people involved in the actual show/events...

Was it common to have a team member from one college make advances toward another team's member during a show? Is their any truth to the rumor that there may have been a disproportionate number of 'same-gender' advances? Etc. etc. etc...

What is, or was, the normal or commonplace 'social interaction' situations or experiences for the college equestrian team member? Did they often 'hang out' together? Trade boyfriends? Watch longingly from the rail when so-in-so from team such-and-such went to ride?
Did or does the 'equestrian team experience' differ in any way from any other activity when it comes to the social scene?
 

buz

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This might not be terribly helpful, but I think this is one of those situations where you can take the spectrum of normal human behavior and use whatever fits your story.

I've been involved in a couple of school 'equestrian teams' but both were atypical (both at same-sex schools, and neither intercollegiate or particularly competitive) and I was always more a keeping-to-myself sort of person. So if events happened I only ever went because I felt I had to in order to continue getting discounted riding lessons. But anyway...there were certain functions, the usual thing you could expect...fundraising, dinners sometimes, throwing crap together and bathing the horses before a show. Most of which, as I said, I ducked out on, so I'm no help at all. But where people are in contact, they might come to like each other. Or hate each other. Or neither. Whatever. You can do what you want with it.

I don't know that people would be hitting on other people *at* shows, though. Maybe, but the show drama, in my experience, is more about bitching about other people's crap riding and crap saddles and what did they do to their horse's mane and I heard she was friends with that girl who wears capes and oh my god is that GLITTER? And when not doing that, things can get pretty busy with memorizing your course and knowing your number order and hosing off the horses and tacking them up and switching and hot-walking them and changing and blah blah blah.

Anyway, in short: it's a group of young people getting thrown together in situations where drama can potentially happen. That's pretty much it, socializing-wise. You can manipulate it pretty freely, I should think. ;)
 

shaldna

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. I guess what I was looking for in particular was the social side of the college experience.

IE: Was it common for equestrian team members to date each other?

Horsey guys don't tend to be all that interested in girls. And the few guys that are tend to be quite the lotharios - it's a side effect of being in the very extreme minority when surrounded by very fit young women in tight clothing. When I was at college there were 5 guys on the entire programme, as opposed to about three hundred girls at the same time. Of those five guys three of them werre gay, one was married (and about forty - he'd come for retraining having been a jockey) and one made it his mission to sleep with every female on campus. Having left college and worked with horses professionally for a long time, I can tell you that seems to be typical.


Or befriend and become room-mates?

Rooms were assigned, so no choice there. Also, our teams were constantly being reassessed, so just because you were on the team doesn't mean you will stay there. If you are on a team for a particular league then you will usually be able to hold your place, but it's not a given.

Did team-members throw regular after-match parties? Did they have end-of-season dinners or banquets?

We used to have two formals per year to help raise money for travelling etc, there were pretty fancy affairs. We tended to all hang out at the pub after competitions because it was cheap and had a rather vague closing time.

I've heard the term: "Founder's party" or "Founder's Suite" as if there might have been a social gathering place for the 'other' people involved in the actual show/events...

Never heard of either of these. For us all were welcome, including students who weren't on the team. Tutors and organisers tended to be faculty, so they didn't hang out with the students so much, because that would have been a bit weird.

Was it common to have a team member from one college make advances toward another team's member during a show?

Hell yeah. Horsey folks are renowned for being quite...well. :)


Is their any truth to the rumor that there may have been a disproportionate number of 'same-gender' advances? Etc. etc. etc...

See my post further upthread.
 

mackandblues

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I'm an avid horse rider and the BEST forum for finding other English minded horse people is the Chronicle of the Horse forum. Put a post in the "Off-course" section and I'm sure you'd have all the information you would need. That's where us horse people hang out online ;) here ya go
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=74