HPU Equestrian team finishes competition season strong
By Whitney Yount, Organizations Editor //
In 2009, High Point University’s Equestrian Team was founded as part of the Interscholastic Horse Show Association. IHSA is a national organization that is almost 50 years old, and nearly 400 colleges and 9,000 riders from across the country compete within the association each year.
HPUET is now in its sixth competitive season as a team, and the riders are coached by Catherine Schlaeppi out of Fox Run Farm in High Point. This year, the co-ed team has 32 competitive members and competes against 10 other schools in our region, including Virginia Tech, Liberty, Elon, UNCG and Wake Forest, among others.
The regular competition season runs from September to February, and each horse show is hosted by a different school in the region. In most cases, the horses for the show are provided by the school hosting the event, though other schools are occasionally asked to bring additional horses to accommodate the size of an event.
“The riders compete by drawing a horse’s name out of a hat that they have most likely never ridden before,” explained Junior Lilly Chalfant, the team’s co-captain. “You have no warm-up or chance to get to know the horse; you just read a small description.”
The riders then compete in their given events and are judged on their ability to adapt and perform with this strange horse for the first time. The shows are broken up into six divisions: Walk Trot, Beginner Walk Trot Canter, Advanced Walk Trot Canter, Novice, Intermediate and Open. This allows both beginners and more advanced riders to compete at the same show.
Riders are judged from first to last place in their class, and point values are assigned to the places: first place is awarded seven points, and each subsequent place results in one less point, so that a sixth place finish earns one point. Teams designate “point riders” to represent the team in each division, and riders can also accumulate points individually throughout the season.
Individual riders need 36 points throughout the season to qualify for Regional Finals, and the top two teams overall also advance to the regional competition.
Last weekend, the last two regular season shows were held, giving teams and individuals one final chance to qualify for the regional competition, which will be held Saturday, Feb. 28. Many of the HPUET riders had already qualified to advance, but last weekend’s show allowed even more of the riders to earn their place at this weekend’s competition.
“The team came in second place for the day [Saturday] at only 2 points behind Avarett University, thanks to wins by freshman Gabby Harris, newcomer and beginner walk trot rider Desiree Francisco and sophomore Brittany Lukowicz,” Chalfant said.
Regional Finals will be held at Avarett University this weekend, and the competition is steep: only the top two individual riders from each division will move on to compete in Zone Finals, which will be held in March at Goucher College in Baltimore.
“It is very exciting to have competitors representing HPU at Regional Finals, and if we make it to Zones it is extremely impressive as well,” Chalfant said. The top two finishers in each division at Zones will move onto Nationals, which are going to be held in May in Springfield, Mass. In the history of the program, just one HPUET member, alumna Jul Kime, has had the opportunity to compete at Nationals, where she finished in sixth place in her division. The team members hope to replicate her success this year.
“We’ve stayed in the top three teams in a very competitive region all season, despite being one of the youngest teams,” Chalfant said. “The fact that we have a chance to be competing at Regionals against old, established teams like Virginia Tech and Wake Forest is great, and we are very excited for our members to advance in the competition.”