Not just Horse-ing around

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By Chris McDonald

When one thinks about LSU athletics, sports such as football, baseball and basketball come to mind immediately. But many may be surprised to know that LSU has had an Equestrian club on campus for the past nine years.

Equestrianism refers to the skill of riding horses and participating in various show events.

The LSU Equestrian Club was founded in 1999 by LSU students and made an immediate impact. In their 1999-2000 season, the team ranked sixth in Zone 7, Region 2 for the show season.

During the 2006-2007 season, LSU was the High Point Team at every regular point show, finishing the season as the undefeated Zone 7, Region 2 Champions. The team qualified to compete in the Zone Finals for the first time in team history, and placed second behind West Texas A&M.

Currently, the team consists of 20 members and practices at Ravenwood Stables just outside of Baton Rouge. The club competes within the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association (IHSA) against schools such as Rice, Trinity and Tulane. The club competes against other schools in the region, including both varsity and non-varsity teams. Members attend weekly practice and are expected to participate in all club functions.

This year’s team is currently placed first in Zone 7 Region 2 after traveling to Trinity University in October and at LSU in February, where they were named the high point team both days at both shows. Danielle Taylor was named the High Point rider at Trinity and at LSU’s hosted show.

For the riders, competing in events can be quite challenging because the club has to partake in “catch riding.” This involves traveling to a host school, drawing a horse’s name and riding the horse to best of his or her ability. Riders are not allowed to warm up and they cannot use their own tack or horse. The riders must simply rely on what they saw of the horses earlier that morning during warm up. The shows are then judged on equation, or the form of the rider. The competition is judged as a team sport, and individuals earn points for the team as well as individually.

However, the club has begun to face some stressing financial issues. Since the club is a non-varsity sport, they rely heavily on fundraisers and fees to help relieve the costs of showing. Recently, most of the varsity IHSA host universities were lost to NCAA programs and that has left non-varsity teams like LSU to bear the financial burden of hosting an IHSA competition. And while LSU does host a fundraising show once a year, they still must fund their IHSA shows, which cost close to $4,000 per weekend. If LSU is not able to host these shows, they will not be able to compete at the Zone finals and will not have the funds to cover travel expenses to the IHSA National Competition.

LSU will next host the Zone Finals from April 4-6, before hosting the Tiger Classic fundraiser at the BREC fields from May 24-25. Students interested in trying out for the team can contact Coach Leaf Boswell at http://www.eqteam.lsu.edu.

Originally Published: Issue 601 - March 26, 2008

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